- The witness said Attorney General Adoke’s number was used by Boko Haram to bargain a governorship petition filed by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Borno State.
- Vice President Namadi Sambo has been serially linked to the sect. No details on his investigation.
By Ikechukwu Nnochiri; Vanguard of 25th October 2012
Abuja — Chief investigator of the State Security Service, SSS, Mr James Ene Izih, yesterday, explained before a Federal High Court in Abuja, why the duo of Vice President Namadi Sambo and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN, were not interrogated with a view to ascertaining their level of involvement with the Boko Haram Islamic sect.
Izih who, yesterday, testified as the second prosecution witness, PW-2, in the ongoing trial of the lawmaker representing Borno South Senatorial District, Mohammed Ali Ndume, also told the court that Ndume gave the telephone number of the Attorney-General of the Federation to the Islamic sect.
The witness said though Sambo and Adoke were alleged to have had contacts with the sect, “however, instead of inviting them for questioning as we did in the case of Ndume, the service decided to investigate the claim using our state-craft.”
The witness who told the court that he had been in the business of investigation for the past 31 years, maintained that it was an apprehended spokesman of the sect in Maiduguri, Ali Sanda Umar Konduga, and Ndume that fingered the VP and the AGF, in separate confessional statements they made upon their arrest by a special investigation panel that investigated the spate of bombings in parts of the country.
Ndume was indicted by Boko Haram ex-spokesman
He told the court that Ndume, who he said volunteered three separate statements upon his arrest on November 21, 2011, admitted having contacts with the Boko Haram sect, insisting that he even gave some materials including a compact disk, given to him by the sect, to both the Vice President and Director of the SSS.
“My lord, our investigative panel was set up with a mandate to trace, locate, arrest, question, detain and prosecute any person arrested in connection with the bombings. It was in the course of executing the mandate that one Boko Haram suspect, Konduga, a.k.a Usman Alzawahiri, was arrested.
“He was arrested at Gwange Area of Maiduguri in Borno State, where he functioned as the spokes-man of the sect. It was in the process of his interrogation by the Special Investigation Panel, SIP, that he mentioned Senator Ndume and one Saidu Pinda who is now deceased.
“Konduga had alleged that Ndume assisted the sect to carry out certain terrorist activities in Maiduguri. On account of that, we invited the accused person and I detailed some of my case officers to witness his voluntary statement on November 21, 2011.
“He made three different statements on that particular day and made additional statements on November 24, 30 and December 2, 2011, where he confessed that he had made telephone contacts with Konduga.
“Due to that confession, we had to take his mobile phone from him for expert analysis because we had already taken Konduga’s phone too.”
The two phones comprising Nokia E-7 and Nokia 27100, were tendered and admitted into evidence yesterday as exhibits P5 and P5(a).
Meanwhile, under cross examination by Ndume’s lawyer, Chief Ricky Tarfa, SAN, the witness said it was the decision of the security agency not to invite Vice President Sambo for interrogation, adding: “We investigate cases based on the facts we have. On the allegation against the VP, though we did not have an audience with him, we investigated the claim using our state-craft.”
- Related: June 16, 2014 NewsRescue–Boko Haram: VP Namadi Sambo Caught Forcing To Sell Nigerian Key Security Infrastructure To Emeka Ofor, PDP Financier
Besides, Izih told the court that the SSS operatives who searched Ndume’s house, seized his laptop and phones, saying they, however, failed to recover any judgement linking him to the sect.
The court, yesterday, adjourned further hearing on the case till November 1, 5 and December 11.
Ndume gave AGF’s telephone number to Boko Haram –Witness
The witness further told the court that it was the accused senator who gave the telephone number of Mohammed Adoke to the Boko Haram.
The accused has, however, said he established the link to facilitate peace as a member of the Presidential Committee on Security in the North-East zone.
Izih said Konduga informed the panel that Ndume obliged him with the GSM telephone number of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation.
The witness said the number was used to bargain a governorship petition filed by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Borno State.
Izih said that Konduga had testified that the calls to the AGF were threats to spur him to influence the governorship election tribunal members to cede the election victory to PDP or risk mayhem in the state.
He explained that the name of the AGF was dragged into the panel report submitted on November 25, 2011 on the grounds that his GSM number was found in Konduga’s telephone set.
Izih said that Konduga’s transaction with the AGF was a threat to the minister’s life, adding that the accused facilitated it by giving out Adoke’s telephone number to a senior official of Boko Haram.
Ineh, in his testimony, further said that the items found in the accused’s telephone were indicative of his close connection with the dreaded group.
“The fact that Konduga was tried and convicted of terrorism acts is enough to show that the accused is also liable,” he said.
Justice Gabriel Kolawole adjourned the matter to Nov. 1, Nov. 5 and December 11 for continuation.
Specifically, Ndume who is answering to a 4-count criminal charge, had in his statements, maintained that the reason the sect approached him was as a result of his being a member of the Presidential Committee that was inaugurated on August 2, 2011, with a view to addressing the security challenges in the North Eastern part of the nation.
He said the first telephone exchange between him and the sect was on October 4, 2011, two months into the Committee’s work.
In a 24 paragraph affidavit he deposed before the court, Ndume said after the sect approached him, “he promptly informed one Usman, who represented the SSS before the Presidential Committee of his contact with the said Jammatul Sunnah Walid Jihad (otherwise known as’Boko Haram’ sect) and also other members of the committee.
“He also informed the Director of State Security Service of his interaction with the said “Boko Haram” sect and forwarded a copy of the DVD he obtained from the sect to the Director of SSS for review.
“The Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Namadi Sambo, is also aware that he was in contact with the Jammatul Sunnah Walid Jihad (otherwise known as ‘Boko Haram’).”
- Related: NewRecsue–Nigeria Vice President Namadi Sambo Had Close Ties To Boko Haram Sponsor, Nuhu Mohammed Marafa (alias Babawo)
http://allafrica.com/stories/201210251273.html?viewall=1
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Nigeria’s Attorney General, Bello Adoke’s Mansions In London, Dubai Uncovered…Sends Security Agents After iReports-ng.com Editors
A week after controversial Nigerian Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke assured that the Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim has been mandated to investigate his bank accounts and make his findings public, mum seems to be the outcome of the police probe.Even as they have failed to make public their findings, further investigations by ireports-ng.com have revealed that the embattled minister is not only tucking some stupendous wealth in Nigerian bank accounts and bluechip companies, he has locked up mansions wasting away in highbrow areas of London, United Kingdom and Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Not pleased with our initial reports on his hidden wealth, Mr Adoke has also sent security agents after our correspondents in the nation’s capital, Abuja. In the last one week, state agents have moved round hotels and media gatherings in Abuja trying to source for information about journalists working for ireports-ng.com. They have also continued to harass our office in the United States with threat messages and calls.
Undeterred,our team was able to dig out more information about the unbelievable wealth of a serving Nigerian public official. Our findings have revealed that Mr Adoke has a locked up luxury apartment worth over 2 million Great Britain Pounds at Pinnacle House,in highbrow Colindale area of London(NW9 5FY). He owns Apartment number 42 in the luxury mansion which picture is shown above and below.
To satisfy his insatiable thirst for luxury, Mr Adoke also moved over to the United Arab Emirates where he bought yet another luxury apartment worth over $5 million USD in the prestigious Princess Tower, located in Dubai Marina along Al Sufoul Road, Dubai. This like the one in London, he also locked up.
iReports-ng.com is also on the trail of another mansion in London which was said to have been bought by Adoke for the just retired former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu. In fact, information has it that the former CJN presently lives in the house in London. Kaksina-Alu was the one who nominated Adoke as President Goodluck Jonathan’s Justice Minister.
A source close to security agents in UK and US also told ireports-ng.com recently that law enforcement agencies in the two jurisdictions are also on the trail of Mr Adoke’s assets scattered across the world.
In our earlier postings, we had reported that “Weeks of underground investigations by ireports-ng.com have however revealed more shocking details about Adoke’s secret bank accounts in the nation’s federal capital territory, Abuja. One of such is an account number 002228052782 at a branch of First City Monument Bank located at Plot 252 Herbert Macaulay Way, Central Area Abuja. In the account is a stunning sum of $16 million US dollars.
Further investigations revealed that Adoke is keeping yet another $24 million US dollars in account number 041152000428 with Diamond Bank located at Plot 117 Adetokunbo Ademola Street, Wuse 2 while another 5.3 million Great Britain Pounds is also kept in the same account with Diamond Bank.
As if that was not enough, ireports-ng.com also revealed that Nigeria’s Justice Minister operates another secret account with the Ahmadu Bello Way branch of Zenith Bank, Abuja where a whooping sum of N6.2 billion is being kept.”
We had also reported that “A rundown of the documents made available to ireports-ng.com indicate that Adoke is a major investor in Oando Oil which has taken over N228 billion out of the N1.4trillion shared by about 100 oil marketers between January and August, 2011. The Minister has about N1.5 billion investment tucked in Oando Oil PLC. Apart from Oando, available documents also show that Adoke is equally a major investor in Eterna Oil which has within the same period benefitted about N5.57 billion from the fuel subsidy cake. He is said to have about N1 billion investment in the company, with another N2 billion tucked in a company called Novasys Ltd.
It has also been discovered that the Minister has his hands and hidden investments in major banks in the country. Some of them include about N400 million in Oceanic Bank; aboutN200 million in UAC properties; about N20 million in Guaranty Trust Bank; about N360 million in Access Bank; about $400,000 US dollars in MTN; about N1 billion in Japaul Oil& Maritime; about N15 million in Bank PHB; about N100million in First Bank; about N20 million in FCMB and aboutN6 million in Unity Bank PLC among others.”
