Colonel Adebisi Adesanya (retd), a third Prosecution Witness, (PW3) in the trial of the former Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman’s alleged N33.8 billion fraud, has told Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, that the former minister spent the sum of N20 million on lodging in a hotel (resort).
Adesanya in his testimony on Tuesday disclosed that Mamman spent the N20 million from the fund earmarked for the Mambilla Hydro Power project on payment for lodging in a resort over a period of one year.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is prosecuting Mamman on a 12-count charge bordering on conspiracy to commit money laundering to the tune of N33,804,830,503.73.
Adesanya, who is the Chief Security Officer and owner of Sami Court Resort Limited, where Mamman allegedly paid for a one year lodging to the tune of N20 million, disclosed while being led in evidence on Tuesday by prosecution counsel, A.O. Mohammed, that, “Sami Court Resort Limited is a service apartment where people come to lodge and stay for a long time, one month, two months, a year.”
The witness added, “You only book in with your clothes, then any other thing is serviced by the apartment.”
He also revealed that he was invited for questioning by the EFCC on September 6, 2023 regarding inflows from accommodation and lodging into the United Bank for Africa, (UBA) account of the resort over the period spanning from 2019 to 2021 and identified Exhibit PWC as the invoice issued to Mamman by the resort after his payment of N20 million for lodging, covering the period between August 30, 2021 and August 30, 2022.
“This is our company’s invoice. We issued it after the payment of N20million with respect to lodging and accommodation for Engineer Saleh Mamman,” he said.
Adesanya, who gave a breakdown of the lodging inflows from Mamman revealed, “On September 6, 2021, the inflow was N5million, deposited by Golden Bond Nigeria Limited for the period covering 30th August 2021 to 30th August 2022 and the name of the lodger is Engineer Saleh Mamman.
“The second column is on January 23, 2022, being N5million payment deposited by Mintedge Nigeria Limited to cover from 30th August 2021 to 30th August 2022.
“The third column is March 9, 2022, and the amount is N2, 500, 000 (Two Million, Five Hundred Thousand Naira), payment by Abdullahi Suleiman and it is to cover the period of 30th August 2021 to 30th August, 2022 for Engineer Saleh Mamman.
“And the last one is on May 10, 2022, and the amount is N7, 500,000 (Seven Million Five Hundred Thousand Naira), deposited by A.I.J Global Tools Limited over the period covering 30th August 2021 to 30th August 2022 and the name of the lodger is Engineer Saleh Mamman.”
According to Adesanya, the payments by Mamman were just for one bedroom rental, all made through the resort’’s UBA account.
He said, “The documents are our invoice in respect to payment for one bedroom rental from 30th August 2019 and 30th August 2020 and the amount is N20 million.”
Justice Omotosho afterwards adjourned the case till January 13, 2025 for continuation of trial.