A witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr Bashir Mohammed, on Wednesday contradicted himself in court while claiming that he of gave former President Olusegun Obasanjo the naira equivalent of $140,000.
According to a statement admitted by Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke, Bashir, who was the first prosecution witness in the trial of Abdulahi Babalele (son-in-law of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar), said he personally gave the money to Obasanjo but contradicted himself by saying that he gave the money to “one man” whose identity he did not know.
At the commencement of trial on Wednesday, the defence counsel Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) told the witness to read one of the extra judicial statements made to the EFCC on March 11.
Bashir read out loud: “I collected the dollars cash from Dan Asabe and I called Abdullahi and he told me to take the money to Ogun State to Obasanjo’s library.”
“When I got to the library, I met a man who asked if I am Bashir and I said yes. He asked: where is the message from Abdullahi? And I gave him the money. I don’t know the name of the person I gave the money but I can identify the office. “
Ozekhome argued that the witness contradicted his evidence on Monday November 11.
He said: “Yesterday, you said you gave Obasanjo $140,000 personally in his house, but in this your statement today, you wrote that you gave the money to a man in the library that you don’t even know his name.
“You told the court yesterday that you changed N50,400,000 that was transferred to you but in your statement we have seen N53million and N52.5million that was transferred to you. “
The case in which Babalele was accused of laundering $140,000 in the build-up to the 2019 general elections was adjourned to January 29 for further proceedings.
