How Nyame deposited N180m for Abuja house - EFCC

An operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ibrahim Galadima, on Tuesday told a Feder­al capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Gudu, that former governor of Taraba State, Mr Jolly Nyame, deposited N180 million to buy a house in Abuja.

Under cross-examina­tion by Nyame’s Counsel, Mr Olalekan Ojo, Galad­ima, who headed the in­vestigation team in 2007, also said that the actual figure was N20 million signed by Nyame for the purchase of stationeries for the state.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) report quoted Galadima as say­ing that his team discov­ered that N200 million was paid by the state government to Ibrahim Abubakar, the Manag­ing Director of Salman Global Ventures Ltd.

Nyame is facing a 41-count charge of mon­ey laundering, criminal breach of trust and grati­fication of N1.64billion of the state funds.

The witness said that the company was into property business and the Managing Director was Nyame’s friend.

“Out of this amount, N180 million was de­posited for a house in 8, Yaounde Street, Wuse Zone 2 in Abuja where Nyame intended to buy.”

Galadima also re­vealed that N20 million was shared between the then Commissioner for Finance, Mr Tutare and eight million naira was given to the Permanent Secretary in Ministry of Education, Mr Asabe.

He said that they were all invited by the EFCC and testified to the alle­gation.

Galadima alleged that another N165 million was released by the gov­ernor for the same pur­pose and N16 million was given to Baba Garba to buy these equipment.