The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday told the Federal High Court in Lagos how Uyiekpen Giwa-Osagie, a lawyer to a former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar allegedly laundered $2 million.
An EFCC investigator, Shuaibu Shehu, told Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke that Mr. Giwa-Osagie received instruction from the former Vice President to give the $2m to one of Atiku’s security guards.
Giwa-Osagie is standing trial alongside his brother, Erhunse Giwa-Osagie, on a three-count charge of money laundering to the tune of $2m brought against them by the EFCC.
One of the counts reads: “That you, Uyiekpen Glwa-Osagie and Erhunse Giwa-Osagie, sometime in February 2019, in Nigeria… conspired to commit an offence to wit: making a cash payment of the sum of $2,000,000.00 without going through a financial institution, which sums exceeded the amount authorized by law.
“You thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18(a), and 1(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 as amended and punishable under Section 16(2)(b) of the same Act.”
At Monday’s sitting, Mr Shehu, who was led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Kufre Uduak, said the Commission, sometime in 2019, received intelligence that some politicians were moving around with US dollars to influence the result of the last general elections.
He said: “It was also revealed that the sum of $1.6million was given to one Alhaji Lawan Abdullahi, a Bureau De Change Operator (BDC).
“Based on this intelligence, my team conducted investigations and recovered the sum of $1.459million in cash.
“It was also discovered that the money came from a company called Guensey Trust Nigeria Limited controlled by the first defendant (Giwa-Osagie) in trust for Atiku Abubakar.”
In his further testimony, the witness told the court that Guensey Trust received into its own account the sum of 26 million Euros from a foreign company, Intel West Africa.
According to him, “The money was then converted into dollars, which was $30m.
“Guensey Trust transferred the sum of $5million into Andrew Pitchford, a company owned by the 2nd defendant, and was converted into naira through a BDC company.
“The 2nd defendant was also instructed by the 1st defendant to raise the sum of $2m for someone, whom we later found out to be a security guard to Atiku Abubakar.
“Our findings revealed that the first defendant (Giwa-Osagie) received the instruction from the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, to hand over the money to the said person.”
Justice Aneke adjourned the matter till January 13, 2021, for continuation for trial.