A Bureau de Change operator, Rabiu Musa Tafada, testified in the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Tuesday in the trial linking Dauda Suleiman to alleged money laundering activities. Suleiman, along with Ali Bello, is on trial for laundering N10 billion.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.

Tafada, who runs “Rabiu Tafada Global Ventures” in Wuse Zone 4, told the court that Suleiman was a regular customer, often visiting his office or sending someone to conduct transactions.

The witness identified handwritten notebooks containing transaction records, claiming they documented instances where Suleiman either bought, sold, or borrowed dollars.

Tafada, during his testimony, led by Prosecution Counsel Rotimi Oyedepo, began his testimony by saying that sometime in 2023, the EFCC came to his office and took some documents, which included a hard-copy notebook and an exercise book.

The items were shown to him and he admitted that the items were the documents taken by the Commission.In view of his submission, Oyedepo sought the permission of the court to tender the items as evidence but the defence objected to their admissibility.

The defence counsel, Nureini Jimoh, SAN, noticed the presence of some loose sheets among the items presented by the witness and asked the court for time to look into the items.

However, Justice Omotosho, in his ruling, struck out the objection of the defence, stating that parties can only make observations and reservations but cannot stop the admissibility of documents, urging them to tender any objection in their written addresses.

The items were admitted as evidence in Exhibits f & g.

Oyedepo, in his further cross-examination, led the witness to examine the contents of the exhibits shown to him.

Tafada revealed that every name in the record book either came to change money or needed cash, which is normally effected through a transfer to his account number.

He told the court that, although he was not the one who recorded the transaction in the exhibits as he could not write, his boys in his office recorded it on his behalf.

“I know the face of the second defendant. He is Dawud, because he comes to either sell, buy or borrow money from me. On the June 10, 2022, I directed one of my boys to record Sunny Benghazi in the book and I am familiar with the name and the transaction was Fifteen Million Naira (N15m), but I cannot remember what happened that day, maybe he came to change dollar to naira or naira to dollar. Also on 17 June 2022, the second defendant brought a paper that I should give Bashir Falala Fifty Nine Million (59m) and Forty Million (40m) and I gave him the money. Also sometimes he will send his driver and sometimes he comes himself” he said.

Earlier, the prosecution called the attention of the court to an amended charge filed before the court that had been served to the parties involved; in the same vein, the defence equally drew the attention of the court to a counter-affidavit they filed.

Justice Omotosho, after listening to the testimony of PW3, adjourned the matter to February 13, 2024, for the continuation of the trial.