Alleged $153m Fraud: Witness Reveals How Diezani Removed $70m from NNPC Coffers

Alleged $153m Fraud: Witness Reveals How Diezani Removed $70m from NNPC Coffers

A first prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of Dauda Lawal, Executive Director, First Bank Plc, has told Justice Muslim Hassan of the Federal High sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos how he delivered 12 padlocked bags containing $70m to an Abuja-based banker on the instruction of a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke.

The witness, a former Group General Manager, GGM, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, gave the testimony before Justice Hassan on Wednesday, July 8, 2020.

Lawal is facing trial for allegedly handling the sum of $25m, out of a total of $153m doled out by Diezani in the build-up to the 2015 general elections.

At the resumed sitting on Wednesday, the witness told the court how he delivered some bags loaded with cash to an Abuja-based banker, before Dume Supermarket in Abuja.

Led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, the witness said: “ My Lord, as I can remember, shortly before the 2015 elections, it was the norm for heads of subsidiaries of the NNPC to be invited for undisclosed briefing of activities of their departments to the minister.