$40m scam: How Azibaola, Jonathan’s cousin, siphoned funds for supply of tactical communication kits
Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court sitting in Maitama, Abuja has adjourned to July 7, 2017 the trial of a cousin to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Azibaola Robert; his wife, Stella and their company, One Plus Holdings, after a stunning revelation by the tenth prosecution witness, David Nkpe, on how One Plus shared to various companies the sum of $40million received from the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA.
Azibaola and his co-accused allegedly diverted $40million (Forty Million United State Dollars) purportedly meant for supply of tactical communication kits for special Forces which was transferred from the account of the ONSA with the Central Bank of Nigeria to the domiciliary account of their company, One Plus Holdings.
At the resumed sitting today, Nkpe told the court that, analysis of documents relating to ‘One Plus Holdings Nigeria Ltd’, showed that the company received the sum of $40million from ONSA.
According to him, investigation was extended to ONSA to ascertain the purpose for which the payment was made.
“EFCC wrote to ONSA to avail them with documents regarding the payment mandate and the reply came”, Nkpe said.
According to him, the payment for that particular mandate was for the “Supply of Tactical Communication Kits for Special Forces”.
He went on: “We investigated the utilisation of the funds and discovered that the funds were transferred to other companies including Bureau de Change and some of the funds transferred offshore to countries like London and United Arab Emirates”.
Asked if he could recall some of the beneficiaries, Nkpe said that, “there were several of them, but I remember that $6.6mmillion was transferred to a company called ‘Karahyna’ between October 2014 and April 2015 in 8 tranches.
The prosecution witness told the court that investigation did not find any tactical communication kits procured from that fund. “Most of the companies that received the money did not supply any goods”, he said.
