Photos: How EFCC Intercepted N49m at Kaduna International Airport

And a week after the Kaduna Airport took over the functions of Abuja Airport following the repair of the former, EFCC’s operatives from the commission’s Kaduna zon­al office have intercepted a sum of N49million in five large black 150kg coloured BUHU sacks.
In a statement, the EFCC Head of Media and Publicity, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said that the interception followed a tip off.

Uwujaren explained that dur­ing a routine baggage screening, the sacks were sighted unattended and without tags containing fresh bulk items suspected to be money.
He said: “Upon examination, the bags were found to contain crispy naira notes of N200 denom­ination in 20 bundles totalling N40 million and N50 denomination in 180 bundles totalling N9 mil­lion with seal purportedly emanat­ing from the Nigerian Security and Minting Plc (NSPM) as seen in the labelled sealed packs.”
Uwujaren said that investiga­tion into the case has started and as­sured Nigerians that suspects would be unmasked.

More From The Fight Against Corruption:

Also, the Independent Cor­rupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has seized 220 flats, located in 20 estates, owned by one Sanusi Mohammed, a former aide to the immediate past governor of Bauchi State, Alhaji Isa Yuguda.
Weapons including 165 rounds of ammunition and a pump action rifle were also found in some of Mo­hammed’s properties located at the Government Reserved Area GRA, Bauchi.
An ICPC operatives said: “We traced 220 flats in 20 estates to him. The houses range from two-bed­room to three-bedroom flats. In­side some of the properties, we dis­covered four sophisticated guns with 165 rounds of ammunition, five ex­otic cars and 15 new air condition­ers. “We believe the air condition­ers were donated to the Bauchi State government by China.

Also yesterday, the Feder­al High Court, Lagos fixed March 23, 2017 to hear received the names of the beneficiaries of the N23billion($115million) alleged­ly laundered by former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alision-Madueke,
The list is said to contain the names of eminent Nigerians, po­litical parties and groups which re­ceived various amount of money from the slush fund.
The names are contained in a document the commission will pre­sent to the Federal High Court, La­gos, on March 23, 2017 as one of the proofs that former Minister of Na­tional Planning, Prof. Abubakar Su­laiman and Mr. Dele Belgore (SAN) received N450 million from Diezani.
These revelations came up on Tuesday when the EFCC forged ahead with the trial of Sulaiman and Belgore.
EFCC’s action will however depend on the decision of Justice Rilwan Aikawa, who adjourned the case till March 23, 2017. On that day, Justice Akawa will rule on the ad­missibility of the document which the commission seeks to tender dur­ing the trial.
Diezani allegedly gave an in­struction that the money be changed from the Dollar to the Naira and be shared among some politicians and groups in the 36 states of the feder­ation.
The first prosecution witness, Mr. Timothy Olaobaju, had on Monday told the court that Belgore and Sulaiman were among the ben­eficiaries of the N23 billion “looted fund.”
The witness told the court that Belgore and Sulaiman jointly re­ceived N450million on March 27, 2015.
At yesterday’s proceedings, Su­laiman’s lawyer, Mr. Olatunji Ayan­laja (SAN), opposed the move by the prosecution to tender the list as an exhibit in court.
Ayanlaja argued that the doc­ument did not completely comply with the provisions of Section 84 of the Evidence Act and urged Justice Aikawa to reject it.
However, the EFCC prosecutor, Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo, maintained that the document had substantially satisfied the conditions spelt out in Section 84 of the Evidence Act and urged the judge to admit it.
After entertaining arguments from both parties, Justice Aikawa deferred his ruling till the next ad­journed date.
Meanwhile, the defence coun­sel commenced the cross-examina­tion of the first prosecution witness on Tuesday.
Under cross-examination by Belgore’s lawyer, Chief Ebun Sho­funde (SAN), the witness said that the N450million received by Bel­gore and Sulaiman was brought in a bullion van from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Asked what the denomination the money was, the witness said, “I can’t remember vividly but I re­member there were N1,000 and N500 bills.”
He said the money was of­floaded from the bullion van into the bank’s loading bay where it was manually counted.
When Shofunde suggested to him that it took two days to count the money, the witness disagreed, saying as a professional banker “I can count N1bn in 20 minutes.”
The witness said though the bank was ready to deliver the money to Belgore and Sulaiman on March 26, 2015 when it arrived from the CBN, failure of Sulaiman to release his Identification Card delayed the process.
He added that the transaction was captured on the CCTV camera mounted in the bank.
When Shofunde said: “I sug­gest to you that none of the de­fendants collected one kobo out of the N450million.” The witness an­swered, “That is not true.”
In the charges, Sulaiman, a pro­fessor of Political Science and Inter­national Relations at the Universi­ty of Abuja, and Belgore, a former governorship aspirant in Kwara State, were accused of conspiring to commit the offence on March 27, 2015.
They were accused of making cash transaction of N450million on March 27, 2015, without going through any financial institution.
The EFCC claimed that the defendants paid N50million to one Sheriff Shagaya, stressing that the cash sum was above the lawful threshold permitted by the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act.