Matilda Omonaiye/
Progress was made today in the prosecution of Dr Doyin Okupe, a former Senior Special Assistant on Media to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan who is facing a 59-count charge for allegedly laundering N702million, as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) closed its case.
Okupe is being prosecuted for money laundering and criminal diversion of funds before Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.
At today’s proceedings, prosecution counsel, Ibrahim Audu presented his last and sixth witness, Shuaibu Salisu, former Director Administration and Finance in ONSA, who presently works with the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).
Salisu told the Court: “Sometime in 2012, Chief Okupe came to the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), and after their discussion, I was directed to make a payment of N50 million to him.
“Okupe provided his account details, where I paid the amount into the bank account of Value Trust Investment.”
He added that he was further directed by the ONSA to be paying N10 million monthly to Okupe for a period of over two years, which he said was reduced to a monthly N5million towards the end of 2014 due to paucity of funds.
He said that he made other payments to Okupe as directed and that at a point he was instructed to pay the defendant N6, 000, 000.
Salisu further revealed that sometime in 2014, the then National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, directed that he paid the sum of N35million to an account provided by Okupe and that he could also recall paying N50million in cash to Okupe on Dasuki’s directive.
He told the Court that he only obeyed directives in all the payments he made to Okupe and didn’t know what the monies were meant for.
When asked if there were evidence of the payments, the witness told the Court that he usually provided Okupe with the payment vouchers, which he usually signed.
When also asked if all the payments were captured in payment vouchers, Salisu said no.
Speaking under cross-examination by Okupe’s counsel, Akinlabi Akinbade, the witness disclosed that Okupe was not the only person that received payments from ONSA. “Anybody that the NSA directs that payment be made to, we make the payment,” he said.
Under the same cross-examination, the witness said he had no reason to believe that the payments he made were from an illegal source.
“Why would I assume it was illegal? I was only directed to make payments,” he said, disclosing further that some of the payment instructions he carried out while working in the ONSA came verbally while some others came written, but that in the case of the payments to Okupe, all the instructions, he said were verbal.
The matter was adjourned to June 26, 2019, for the defence to open its case.