7th September, 2020
A third prosecution witness in the trial of former Justice Minister, Mohammed Adoke testified today how Adoke gave him N367.3million to convert into US dollars.
Usman Bello, a businessman and Bureau de Change(BDC) operator with Gagarimi BDC and Crawnford BDC gave the testimony today, at the resumed hearing of the EFCC case against the former attorney-general
Bello said he knew Adoke and narrated their meeting.
“I have not done any business with him. It was Rislanudeen that called me and told me to come to Abuja.
“When I got to Abuja, we went to the bank, and he gave me some money and I put it into a dollar account and changed it into naira, about N367, 318,800 million. I later transferred some of the account”.
“I made the payment thirty five times,(35 times) because of the existing deposit limits”, he said.
Bello gave the testimony before Justice I.E Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
Earlier, the second prosecution witness, PW2, Rislanudeen Muhammad told the court during cross-examination that he did not know the second defendant (Aliyu Abubakar).
“ Let me state this again, I have never seen the second defendant, I don’t even know him”, he said.
However, Usman Bello, said he knew Adoke.
When asked “ Do you know the defendant?” the witness said “Yes, I know him.”
Prosecution counsel, Bala Sanga later told the witness to identify which of the defendants he knew and the witness said “I know Bello Adoke.”
Thereafter the third prosecution witness, PW3 was discharged.
Justice I.E Ekwo adjourned the matter for continuation of hearing of prosecution witness four till Wednesday, 9 September, 2020.
The EFCC is prosecuting Adoke on 14-count charge bordering on money laundering to the tune of $6million.