By Ishaya Ibrahim
A witness for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Vincent Odafe, has alleged that the N359 million approved for ‘sensitisation’ of groups did not follow due process.
Odafe, a former Director, Finance and Account, Ministry of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs at the period, made the allegation while testifying in a case against the former minister of Special Duties, Tanimu Turaki.
Odafe said the process for the release of the money was dubious wile testifying before Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan had approved N359 million to launder the image of the government through sensitisation of Muslim groups in parts of the country.
According to Odafe, the money was released to the Ministry of Special Duties and Inter-governmental Affairs where Tanimu Turaki was the minister between 2013 and 2015.
The EFCC arraigned the former minister alongside his former Special Assistant, Sampson Okpetu, and two firms; Samtee Essentials Limited and Pasco Investment Limited, on 16 counts of money laundering on May 4 this year.
The EFCC claimed that the money as part of N845 million laundered by the defendants through those companies.
Turaki and Okpetu disagreed with the charges.
But Odafe, now a director at the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, said the disbursement of the money were filled with many flaws.
“I am here to say what I know about the payment that was made on the N359 million for sensitisation of Muslims in 2015.
“While I was DFA (Director of Finance and Account), the Permanent Secretary then, Late Taiye Haruna, invited me to his office and said he was expecting a special money from Finance Ministry and that I should effect the payment because it is urgent.
“He gave me the list of accounts to be paid but I said there should be minimum documentation to be done before payment are made.
“There must be AIE (Authority to Incur Expenditure) and there will be specification.
According to him, in this case, there was no AIE. There was an approval from the presidency of N359m but there was no subhead on what the money should be spent on.
“I told him that this special payments has a lot of flaws.
“He threatened to report me to the Hon. Minister (Turaki) and that the minister would report me to the president that I am delaying what the president approved.
“I went to the minister myself to report myself and said this was what the permanent secretary said and I explained that I would do it only if there is minimum documentation, not just a sheath of paper.
“The minister looked at it and said I should go,” he narrated.
Odafe, who said Haruna was not happy that he reported to the minister, said the document was later sent to the cashier to effect the payment.
“The document was not signed and we sent it back to Mr. Haruna to sign. Later, payments were effected.
“After the payment, because it was a project, we made Mr Titus Okunriboye, a level 12 officer then, as project manager.
“This document did not come to me at that time. If it came to me, that argument that the document was not there will not come up.
“I did not see the document for the award of the contract. And if it was to be signed, it is not the permanent secretary that should sign it; rather. it is the director of procurement.
“They were supposed to tell us the location, how many people were there, etc, to be able to know whether that event took place or not. All these will make me to authenticate the documents,” he said.
Odafe said although he was a signatory to the account of the ministry then as director, but most time, he didn’t.
Odafe said the beneficiaries of the money included; Abdullahi Bagudu with a Zenith Bank account, Abubakar Sani, Abdulraram Yusuf, Samtee Essentials Ltd, Community and Youth Development’s account with Unity Bank plc, etc.