Emmanuel Ukudolo l Tuesday, May 14, 2019
IKEJA, Lagos, Nigeria – Former Cheif of Army Staff, Leutenant General Ishaya Bamaiyi today told the court how he sourced USD8.6 million, which he passed through the alleged serial fraudster, Fred Ajudua for onward transmission to the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Afe Babalola(SAN).
Bamaiyi who was under cross-examination by Mr. Alex Agbaka, who stood in for Mr. Olalekan Ojo(SAN) in the trial at an Ikeja High Court sitting in Ikeja said the defendant, Mr. Fred Ajudua told him that the money for legal fees will be too bulky when paid in Naira hence he had to pay the money in US Dollars and that he sourced the money from friends, relatives and from his farming and property business.
He explained that during that time, he had no domiciliary account and that the money had to be converted to US Dollars before they were handed over to Fred Ajudua in prison and that none of his relatives were involved when the money changed hands and that he got into trouble with his wife as a result of the transaction. Bamaiyi who met the defendant, Fred Ajudua in prison when he was incarcerated for alleged murder of former Publisher of the Guardian Newspaper, Chief Alex Ibru told the court that among those who paid for his legal fees was the former governor of Kebbi State, Senator Adamu Aliero but that he cannot say whether the transaction is documented.
He also said that the fact that he was represented in court regularly by a lawyer confirmed to him that the lawyer received payment and that to ask if the former governor actually made payment as he promised would amount to acts of ungratefulness.
Alex Agbaka: “Did you confirm whether or not the money was paid?
Witness: “I did not confirm, since the lawyer was appearing for, me I assumed he was paid, asking would mean I did not aprecatie his efforts.
Alex Agbaka: Did you make this payment in bulk?
Witness: It could not have been paid in bulk because so many people made the payment. I paid 25 times… The record is prison officers sitting down and the money counted and handed over to them. The one given in prison. I was only present for the one in prison and he(defendant) called me to say he received the money”, he said and that he never spoke to Afe Babalola and could not confirm if the learned SAN operates either in open or secret. He said that the defendant specifically refused to accept payment in cheque.
He also confirmed that there was no bill from Afe Babalola SAN, bearing his name, stressing that there was no need for such since the money was being passed through Fred Ajudua, whom he trusted to him and that he documented the transactions in one of his two personal diaries. Besides the diaries, he said he also had two notebooks that he was using to report things that were happening to him on a daily basis from time to time.
“Things I though I should remember, the day I was arrested and investigations. I don’t record financial transactions in my books except my cheques in the two diaries I have”, he said in court.
