How I handed over $15.8m cash to Suswam – bureau de change operator 

A witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abubakar Umar, has said he handed the sum of $15.8 million in cash to a former governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, at his residence in Abuja in 2014. Umar, a bureau de change operator, stated this during proceedings in the ongoing trail of the […]

A witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abubakar Umar, has said he handed the sum of $15.8 million in cash to a former governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, at his residence in Abuja in 2014.

Umar, a bureau de change operator, stated this during proceedings in the ongoing trail of the former governor.

He further told the court how he received money from Suswam through proxies on numerous occasions in tranches.

According to the witness while in the dock, he met the former governor in his Maitama home, Abuja accompanied by a fair lady.

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“One day in 2014, when I was in the office, the former governor of Benue State asked me to meet him in his house in Maitama, Abuja. I went and met him in the house together with one fair woman.

“He asked me to give the woman my account number. I gave the woman my Zenith Bank account number and she said she’ll send money into the account.

“On the 8th of August 2014, N413 million was transferred to my account. Based on this, I called the former governor and he told me to change the money to dollars and I asked him to give me time to do that.

“Three days after I bought the dollar equivalent, I called the former governor and informed him that the money was ready. He now asked me to take the money to his house in Maitama, near Jumat Mosque. I requested he inform the security at the gate of my coming to allow me access into the house”, he narrated.

The bureau de change operator added that “I took a cab to the house, knocked at the gate and introduced myself. They opened the first and second gates for me and I sat in the waiting room where he (the former governor) came and met me.

“I now brought out the money which we both confirmed to be the equivalent of the N413 million.

“The total money transferred to my account was N3 billion.”, he affirmed.

The presiding judge, Peter Lifu, thereafter, adjourned the matter till October 4, 2024, for continuation of trial.

Daily Trust reports that in 2020, Suswam and Omadachi Okolobia, a former finance commissioner in Benue, were re-arraigned on an 11-count charge bordering on money laundering.

They were both accused of diverting N3.1 billion from the state coffers.

The duo were first arraigned before Ahmed Mohammed, a judge of the federal high court, in 2015.