Federal High Court in Lagos heard on Wednesday that it took Zenith Bank Plc officials 10 days to count the N1.219 billion.
The said amount was received in 2014, at the instance of former Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose’s aide, Abiodun Agbele.
A former executive staff of the bank, Sunday Oluseye Alade, told Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke that the money was counted at the bank’s Akure branch.
Alade made the disclosure while testifying as a witness for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the on-going trial of Fayose and his firm, Spotless Ltd, for an alleged N3.3bn fraud.
His testimony corroborated Tuesday’s statement of another top official of Zenith Bank Plc, Dr Abiodun Oshode, who said the bank took a bullion van to the Akure Airport in Ondo State to evacuate the cash from an aircraft.
The money was allegedly deposited in three accounts, including Fayose’s personal bank account.
Fayose and Spotless Ltd were arraigned on October 22, 2018, before Justice Mojisola Olatoregun, on 11 counts of alleged fraud and money laundering.
He pleaded not guilty and was granted N50 million bail on October 24, 2018, with two sureties in the like sum.
The defendant was re-arraigned before Justice Aneke, on July 2.
He repeated his plea and was allowed to continue on the earlier bail granted, while the case was adjourned for trial.
At the resumption of proceedings Wednesday, Alade was led in evidence by EFCC Counsel, Mr Rotimi Jacobs (SAN).
The witness, who said he was the Head of the Akure Branch when the transaction took place in 2014, narrated how he arranged for a bullion van to pick up the cash warehoused in an aircraft at the Akure Airport.
Alade said: “On 17th June, 2014, I received a phone call from Lawrence Akande through Abiodun Oshode, who was my Zonal Head, that a customer of the bank would be coming to make a cash deposit in Akure. I was told that the customer would be coming by a flight to Akure Airport.
“After some hours, Abiodun Oshode came to my office to inform me that the said customer was in his office. I then followed him to his office where he introduced one, Biodun Agbele, to me as the bank customer. I was later instructed to prepare the cash movement team (bullion van and security) to pick the cash from the airport.
“When the aircraft arrived, three individuals disembarked from it, two of them walked away while the third person talked to Abiodun Agbele. After a short interaction, we were left to offload the cash from the aircraft.
