Abubakar Umar, a bureau de change operator, has narrated to the Federal High Court in Abuja how he delivered $15.8 million cash to Gabriel Suswam while he was the governor of Benue State.

Umar’s account of how the transaction was done was shared on X by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Saturday.

Umar, who had been testifying in the case before the court since 2018, told the judge that the money was the equivalent of the N3.1 billion sent to his Zenith Bank account by the former governor. A dollar was N197 at the time of the deal.

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The EFCC believes Suswam stole N3.1 billion of public funds as governor between 2007 and 2015. It is currently prosecuting Suswam based on an 11-count charge bordering on money laundering.

“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. The woman said she’ll send money into that account,” EFCC quoted Umar as saying.

“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 asked me to take the money to his house in Maitama, near Jumat Mosque.

“I told him that he should inform the security at the gate that I was coming, if not they’ll not allow me access through the gate. I took a cab to the house, and after I arrived at the house, I knocked at the gate and they opened. I told them my name.

“They opened the first and second gates and I sat in the waiting room where he came and met me. I now brought out the money which we both confirmed to be the equivalent of the  N413 million. The exchange rate then was N197.”

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Umar also explained how Suswam used a female proxy to wire the money to his account in batches.

“On the 12th of September 2014, N637 million was transferred to my account.  After N637 million was transferred to my account, after like 40 minutes, N363 million was also transferred into my account,” Umar testified.

“On 13th October 2014, N630,008,050, (Six Hundred and Thirty Million, Eight Thousand and Fifty Naira) was also transferred to my account. On 17th October 2014, N1,068,000,000 (One Billion, Sixty-eight Million) was transferred to my account.

“It was the woman that was directed by the former governor to do the transfers. The total money transferred to my account was N3 billion.”

The anti-corruption commission stated that Umar claimed he had no paper trail to evidence the transaction as his trade was based on discretion with his fellow currency traders.

The court has scheduled the next hearing for this case on Friday.