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A prosecution witness has told a Federal High Court sitting in Maitama, Abuja, how the former Acting Accountant General of the Federation, Chukwunyere Nwabuoku, allegedly diverted over N868 million from the Federal Ministry of Defence using cash withdrawals and multiple company accounts.
The witness, an investigator with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Gudi Johnson, gave the testimony on Thursday before Justice James Omotosho during the trial of Nwabuoku, who is facing a nine-count amended charge bordering on money laundering brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
According to a statement by the EFCC on Monday, Johnson, who testified as the Ninth Prosecution Witness (PW9), revealed that ICPC began investigations after receiving intelligence from the Ministry of Defence regarding suspicious transactions involving companies such as Trans Afro Limited, Torch Global Limited, and Teemell Limited.
“We discovered that one Gideon Joseph was registered as a director in these companies. His address was Louis Street, Maitama and Kubwa. We invited him to answer as to what business he carried out. All the letters could not be delivered, so we resorted to the Ministry of Defence,” Johnson told the court.
He further disclosed that a Director of Accounts in the Ministry, identified as Mr. Felix, told investigators that he acted on the directives of Nwabuoku, then Director of Finance and Accounts.
“Other persons were called and they said they were instructed to withdraw the monies they received into the accounts of Teemell, Touch Global and Transactional Afro Nig. Ltd,” he said.
According to Johnson, when Nwabuoku was invited for questioning, he claimed the funds were for classified security operations, which he could not disclose.
This led the ICPC to forward all documents and findings to the Office of the National Security Adviser.
“A committee was set up including Gen. Monguno, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, myself, Bellozi Adama from EFCC and others. We were told to investigate the matter,” he said.
During interrogation, Johnson said the defendant initially claimed that only N100 million of the funds belonged to him.
However, further investigation revealed larger sums had been diverted and traced back to him.
“As soon as funds were deposited into the Ministry’s accounts, it was diverted and withdrawn by Gideon Joseph. The cash withdrawn would be deposited by Gideon into the account of M. Daddy’s Ltd,” Johnson stated.
He said one Jerry Nwachukwu also came forward and confirmed that N355 million was deposited into M. Daddy’s Ltd account on Nwabuoku’s instructions. Further financial tracing revealed that N150 million was transferred from M. Daddy’s account to Quantum Zenith Ltd.
Additionally, Johnson testified that N13 million was traced to a payment to El Salen Ltd for a property purchase, and N10 million was used to buy a power generating set.
“We obtained records from City Gate Homes showing a property of N65 million linked to the defendant. We told him these are proceeds of crime which must be recovered. We inspected the house at City Gates Homes and seized the keys,” Johnson added.
When asked about Nwabuoku’s declared assets, the Code of Conduct Bureau confirmed that the former Accountant General did not declare any such property.
“We wrote to the Code of Conduct Bureau and they said there was no information on his assets,” Johnson told the court.
Multiple documentary exhibits were tendered and admitted by the court, including letters from ONSA dated January 18 and 20, 2022 (marked Exhibits PwJ and K), the Remita response (Exhibit L), CCB’s response (Exhibit M), and letters from Zenith Bank (Exhibit PWR) and Access Bank (Exhibit PWS).
Justice Omotosho adjourned the matter to May 22 and 23, 2025, for continuation of hearing.
