By Soni Daniel

Abuja—The trial of Abiodun Agbele, an aide to Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State continued yesterday, with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC witness, Alade Oluseye Sunday, telling Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court sitting in Maitama, Abuja that, it took about 45 minutes to offload the N1,219,490,000 sent by Musiliu Obanikoro, former minister of state for defence, to Fayose ahead of the Ekiti governorship election, from the aircraft.

Sunday, a manager and Head of Zenith Bank Plc, Akure branch, made the disclosure under cross-examination by Agbele’s counsel, Mike Ozekhome, SAN.

The witness had earlier testified to effect that, the disbursement of the cash, which took 10 days to count was coordinated by Agbele.

According to him, the cash, which was loaded in ‘Ghana-must-go’ and Diamond Bank tarpaulin bags, were delivered twice via an aircraft. He added that, it took not less than forty-five minutes to off-load the cash on both occasion.

“In fact, I, Agbele and Abiodun Oshode (Regional Manager of the bank) were practically watching while the money was being off-loaded”, Sunday said.

Answering another question from the defence, the witness insisted that the cash was bundle-counted and confirmed to be N1,219,490.00 (one billion, two hundred and nineteen million, four hundred and ninety thousand naira).

He added that, after ascertaining the amount, Agbele, Oshode and Adewale (Obanikoro’s aide) were handed a small sheet of paper which was taken to Oshode’s office where decisions were taken on how the fund would be disbursed.

Further hearing on the case has been adjourned to January 25-27, 2017.

Agbele is facing an 11-count charge for allegedly diverting N4.6billion from the office of the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki.