Ex-NSA authorised $40m payment to Jonathan cousin’s company, says witness

The trial of Azibaola Roberts, cousin to former President Goodluck Jonathan in the alleged $40 million money laundering charge, began on Tuesday, in Abuja, before the Federal High Court in Abuja, with the prosecution witness, Ibrahim Maye, saying the former National Security Adviser (NSA) Colonel Sambo Dasuki (retd) instructed him to prepare a payment mandate of $40 million in favour of One Plus Limited.
Dasuki was the NSA in the immediate past administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, while One Plus Limited is the company of Roberts, his cousin.
Roberts, together with his wife, Stella, were arraigned on June 8, on a seven-count charge bordering on money laundering, totalling about $40 million.
Maye, who was the first witness called by the prosecution, told the court that Dasuki had endorsed a memo to him with details of the company’s account.
He said the memo was sent to him in his capacity as the Permanent Secretary, Special Service Office, a department in the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
“On August 20, 2014, the NSA endorsed a memo to me which originated from the Director of Finance and Administration in the office of the NSA giving bank details of a company called One Plus.






“The memo also gave details of the purpose for which the company was to be paid the sum of 40 million dollars.  
“The NSA instructed me to prepare payment and my understanding of that was that I should prepare the payment mandate for One Plus for his signature.
“After I got the memo, I prepared the payment mandate, sent it to him, he signed and sent it back to me. The subsequent necessary action was for me to counter sign, which I did and I sent it to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for payment,” Maye said.
Earlier, the lead counsel for Roberts, Chris Uche, did urged the court for a short adjournment, because he had not have ample time to meet with his client since he was granted bail to prepare his defence.
He said when bail was granted, he had difficulties in perfecting the bail conditions, adding that the conditions were only perfected last week.
He said they needed more time to prepare their defence, because there were some documents they needed to subpoena from the office of the NSA.
Uche also sighted in disposition as part of the reasons his team was asking for an adjournment.
The prosecuting counsel, Sylvanus Tahir, however, objected to the application on the grounds that they had a witness already in court, who was stopped from going on lesser hajj on account of the trial.