An aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan told a Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday the former first couple instructed him to do all he did in the series corruption and money laundering allegations the EFCC pinned against him and the former first lady Patience Jonathan.
Waripano Dudafa was testifying before Justice Mohammed Idris in a fundamental rights suit Mrs. Jonathan filed in 2016 to vacate a no debit order placed on her account containing $15.5 million at Skye Bank Plc by the EFCC.
Joined in the suit are the EFCC, Skye Bank, Dudafa, Pluto Property and Investment Company Limited, Seagate Property Development and Investment Company Limited, Transocean Property and Investment Company Limited and Globus Integrated Service Limited.
During a cross-examination by EFCC’s lawyer Rotimi Oyedepo, Dudafa, said he knows Festus Iyoha and Peter Avirim.
“They are presidential stewards attached to the president. Several times, the former president and his wife gave me dollars for Festus, Peter and others to change to naira.
“I was the Special Assistant to the President on Domestic Affairs and I received instructions
from my boss. I never had powers to give instructions but I could relay instructions to aides in the Presidency including Festus and Peter.
He added that he relayed several instructions from the former president and his wife to the aides.
“Several instructions were given including the one involving money but they were all relayed on behalf of the former president and his wife.” He said.
Dudafa also claimed he was the only one that could access Jonathan’s bedroom to take instructions which he had to carry out.
“The physical handing over of the money was done by me though I was relaying an instruction.”
Dudafa also told the court that he was not aware that Mrs. Jonathan was a Permanent Secretary with the Bayelsa State Government while he was serving in the presidency.Oyedepo, however, asked the question of cash delivery again, and Dudafa got upset.
“I will not be cowed or cajoled. I am under oath; probably Mr. Rotimi needs to be educated about the workings of the Presidency.”
Mike Ozekhome (SAN), who is also a defence counsel in the case, rose and told the judge that Dudafa had already answered the question.
The intervention led to an argument Ozekhome and Oyedepo.
SANs Ifedayo Adedipe and Lanre Ogunlesi had to step in to calm the situation, and Oyedepo went back to Dudafa, posing the same question.
“In the course of your official duty, you handed over hard currency to Peter and Festus for onward delivery to a Bureau de Change operator, Murtala,” Oyedepo insisted.
In response, Dudafa said, “I relayed different instructions from the President and his wife and the instruction can come in the form of ‘Dudafa, give this money to BDC, change it to dollars’. But if you say I did it, it was as if I did it on my own volition.
“Several times, the President and his wife gave me money, naira to exchange for dollars, which I relayed.”
But Oyedepo insisted it was not the President and his wife that did the physical handing over of the money.”
Dudafa disagreed again, saying “ it could be that the President was in his bedroom and said, ‘Dudafa, take this money, give it to Festus in the sitting room.’ It doesn’t mean I was the one who gave the money to Festus. What is the problem with relaying message?”
Dudafa, after a while, then admitted he was the one who handed over the money to the presidential stewards.
Asked if he was aware that some of the cash sums were “in excess of $500,000 and $1m
per day,” Dudafa said he did not know, because “I didn’t make the payments.”
“You were in constant communication via text messages with Mr. Abubakar Murtala,” Oyedepo said.
“The communication was basically ‘what is the exchange rate today?”
But Oyedepo said that Dudafa knew the cash sums.