A prosecution witness at the FCT High Court on Tuesday, detailed how funds were transferred from the office of the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, to various companies allegedly on the instructions of a former official of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Aminu Baba-Kusa.

The first prosecution witness, Michael Adarikun, said that on 17 April 2015, the office of the National Security Adviser, led by Mr. Dasuki, transferred N600 million to Acacia Holdings, a firm on trial.

Mr. Adarikun, an Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) detective, noted that the money was disbursed to different companies, including Medical Plastic Limited, where Mr. Baba-Kusa’s wife is a majority shareholder.

The EFCC is prosecuting Messrs Dasuki and Baba-Kusa alongside two firms, Acacia Holdings and Reliance Referral Hospital Limited, on 32 counts of fraud involving the diversion of 33.2 billion arms funds entrusted to the NSA office.

Both Acacia Holdings and Reliance Referral Hospital belong to Mr Baba-Kusa.

In March 2025, the EFCC re-arraigned the defendants following the reassignment of the decade-old case to the judge, Charles Agbaza.

The defendants denied the charges against them.

On 11 November, the witness, Mr. Adarikun, told the court that EFCC’s analysis of Acacia Holdings’ account in UBA revealed that the ONSA transferred N200 million.

Mr. Dasuki duly signed the payments made to the two companies, the witness said.

EFCC’s money trail of N600 million from ONSA

Continuing his testimony on Tuesday, the witness stated that the EFCC found a meagre balance of only N27,094 in Acacia Holding’s account shortly before it received N600 million from the ONSA on 17 April 2015.

This discovery was made after the anti-graft agency went through the company’s UBA account statement.

However, the money was disbursed to other companies for various reasons.

For instance, on 23 April 2015, Acacia Holdings transferred N60 million to Hidayatul Atfaal Islamic Academy (HAIA) on the orders of Mr Baba-Kusa for the payment of 3.62 hectares of land at Kiyami district, Abuja

After EFCC interviewed the owner of HAIA, Mohammed Tashir, said it was a down payment for the land, “That land cost a total of N120 million, so he made a half payment,” Mr Adarikun said.

Similarly, Zabati BDC Limited received N25 million in three tranches. The owner, Abdulrahman, told the EFCC that the money was part payment for the property ‘Hospitality Property Nigeria.’

Ibrahim Saleh, who purchased properties for Mr. Baba-Kusa, paid the remaining balance for the property, N15 million, said Mr. Adarikun.

On 24 April 2015, there was a transfer of N100 million and N24 million with no clear description.

Then, on 27 April 2015, N8.7 million was transferred to Mr Saleh for “beacon processing of lands purchased by the second defendant at Kwali, Wasa district, Kiyami district, and within the Central Area in the FCT.”

On the same day, N50 million was disbursed in five tranches to Squad Developers Nigeria Limited. Its owner, Sunday Ugwu, told the anti-graft agency that it was also part payment for 118.132 hectares of land at Stadium Layout, Kwali, Abuja.

Mr. Saleh paid the remaining balance of N25 million for the property.

The witness told the court that on 30 April 2015, over N33 million was transferred to O.A Akinrinmade.

Transfers and conversion to foreign currencies

On 28 April 2015, over N55 million was transferred in six tranches to Pasman Investment Limited.

Its owner, Farouk Suleiman, told EFCC that Mr. Baba-Kusa contacted him through a staff member of the defunct Heritage Bank to fast-track a $1 million transfer to a doctor, Suleiman Alhabib, working with Medical Plastics Services Limited in Saudi Arabia, said Mr Adarikun.

According to the witness, “all the transfers made to Pasman Investment Limited were mopped up to represent the naira equivalent of $630,000 that was transferred by Farouk Suleiman on the instruction of the second defendant.”

On 15 May 2015, over N23 million was transferred to Namuduka Ventures. The owner, Murtala Bashir, told the EFCC that it was for conversion to dollars.

Acacia Holdings, Medical Plastic Limited, and Reliance Referral Hospital transferred a total of over N56million to Namuduka Ventures.

This was converted to “233,944 units and transferred to the second defendant’s Furnishing Touches (FT) account in the United Kingdom (UK), which is a cash card account.”

According to the witness, Mr Bashir told the agency that on 13 May, Mr Baba-Kusa transferred N23million which was converted to €65,075 and sent to the same FT account.

Similarly, Namuduka Ventures received another N2,220,000 from Reliance Referral Hospital Limited, which was converted to €1,500 and sent to Mr Baba-Kusa’s Business Free Empty account in the UK.

Mr. Baba-Kusa also ordered a transfer of $200,000 to Blue-Lake Management Consultancy Limited.

Transfer to Mr Baba-Kusa’s company

On 4 May 2015, N70 million was transferred to Mr Baba-Kusa’s company, Medical Plastic Limited, of which his wife, Hauwa Baba-Kusa, owns 1.8million majority shares.

N80 million was also transferred to the company on 6 May 2015

After hearing the witness’s narration, Trial Judge Agbaza adjourned the matter to 14 January.

Mr Dasuki has been on trial for a decade. His trials suffered multiple adjournments in their early years, largely due to the State Security Services (SSS) refusing to release Mr Dasuki on bail despite multiple court orders.

He served as NSA between 2012 and 2015, during the heat of Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria’s North-east, under the administration of then-President Goodluck Jonathan.

An audit panel, established by President Muhammadu Buhari following his 2015 election victory, found that approximately $2 billion for arms procurement was unaccounted for. These funds were managed by the NSA, led by Mr Dasuki.

Aside from this case, Mr Dasuki is standing trial alongside former Sokoto State Governor Attahiru Bafarawa, his son Sagir Bafarawa, former Minister of State for Finance Bashir Yuguda, and Dalhatu Investment Limited for N4.6 billion arms procurement fraud.

The charges accused them of diverting N4.6 billion from the NSA office’s account. The money was said to be meant for the procurement of arms to firm up the offensive against Boko Haram terrorists between 2014 and 2015.

(The Guardian)

Update news