Trinity Usman, an Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC) witness, on Friday, told the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, that he received and transferred three million dollars into Aisha Achimugu’s company account.

Mr Usman, the 2nd prosecution witness (PW-2), told Justice Emeka Nwite while being led in evidence by the EFCC’s lawyer, Ekele Iheanacho, SAN.

The PW-2, a Bureau De Change (BDC) operator, spoke in the ongoing trial of Halima Buba, managing director of SunTrust Bank, and her co-defendant, Innocent Mbagwu, the executive director/chief compliance officer of the bank.

The duo are being prosecuted on money laundering offences to the tune of $12 million.

In a six-count charge, they were alleged to have aided high-value cash transactions without routing them through a financial institution.

The offence is said to be contrary to Section 21(a), 2(1), and 9(1)(d) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and punishable under Section 19(2)(b) of the same Act.

The defendants were, on June 13, arraigned by the anti-graft agency.

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They, however, pleaded not guilty to the counts, and admitted to a N100 million bail with one surety, each in like sum.

At the resumed trial, the witness said he was in court to tell what he knew about the transactions he did with Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Ltd, owned by Mrs Achimugu.

Mr Usman, who said he was a businessman and general contractor, said he was also into agro allied and oil business.

He said he carried out the businesses with companies or registered names.

He said his companies include Triple A and Tee Service Venture, T.M. Agro Allied Farm, Triple A and D Oil and Gas Ltd, Triple A and Tee BDC Ltd, among others.

“Sometimes in April 2025, one Suleiman Ciroma contacted me that he had a transaction that he needed 3 million US dollars to (be transferred to) Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Ltd.

“In that particular time, I have the money being in my Triple A and Tee Oil and Gas Nig Ltd account.

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“After we agreed with him, Suleiman Ciroma gave me the dollar payment in cash.

“I paid him the dollars into Oceangate Engineering Oil and Gas Ltd account,” he said.

He said the payment was made in April 2025

“Can you remember the exact date you made the payment?” Iheanacho asked.

“I made the transfer in four tranches but I cannot remember the exact day,” the witness responded.

However, when the lawyer asked the witness if he knew Messrs Buba and Mbagwu, he said he did not know them.

“Take a look at the dock and tell the court if you know the defendants,” Mr Iheanacho asked and the witness simply said, “No.”

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Mr Usman told the court that he did the transactions with Triple A and Tee Oil Nig Ltd.

“It was from there I transferred the dollars into Oceangate Engineering Oil and Gas Ltd,” he said.

But when Mr Iheanacho asked the PW-2 if his BDC company, Triple A and Tee BDC Ltd, featured in the transaction, counsel for the 1st defendant (Buba), Johnson Usman, SAN, raised an objection.

The senior lawyer argued that Iheanacho’s question was a ploy to give the witness tips on what to say and the judge directed him to rephrase the question.

The witness said that the licence of Triple A and Tee BDC Ltd, as at the time of the transactions, had been suspended.

He said the cash transactions from Mt Ciroma were made through his staff.

He mentioned the names of the staff as Abdulkadir Mohammed and Kabir Haruna.

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The BDC operator also said that he equally did a naira to dollar transaction with Ciroma.

“The naira was transferred into a Triple A and Tee Service Venture Ltd Bank account.

“The naira also was converted into dollars and I sent the equivalent into an Oceangate account,” he said.

However, during cross-examination by Mr Buba’s counsel, Mr Usman SAN, the witness was asked to confirm to court that Triple A and Tee BDC Ltd had been in operations till date and he responded in affirmative.

“After they suspended our licence, we proposed Triple A and Tee BDC Ltd to CBN last year and we have an approval in principle with CBN,” the witness responded.

“Ciroma Suleiman contacted you in these transactions because he knows you as BDC operator?” the lawyer asked and the PW-2 responded in affirmative.

When Mr Usman asked the witness that it was on the basis of that knowledge that the PW-2 sent his staff to collect the dollars from Mr Ciroma, Mr Iheanacho too objected to the question.

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The witness admitted that he did not tell the defendants before the transactions that his BDC license was suspended at any time.

He said his oil company account was used for the transactions because it was the account he had available dollars.

‘The choice of using your oil and gas company account to transfer the dollars to Oceangate was your own decision,” the lawyer asked and the witness responded in affirmative.

Counsel to the 2nd defendant (Mbagwu), M.S. Ibrahim, SAN, asked the witness if he made any profit from the transactions and he responded in affirmative.

“Did you tell the defendants whom you have never seeing or know before that you were going to make inflow payment from your oil and gas company’s account?” Ibrahim asked and the PW-2 said, “No.”

After the cross-examination, the witness was discharged and Ms Nwite adjourned the matter until Dec. 10 and Dec. 11 for continuation of trial.

Earlier on Thursday during the cross-examination of Suleiman Ciroma, the owner of Funnacle BDC Ltd and the PW-I by Mr Usman, SAN, the witness said the reason Mrs Achimugu requested for the transfer of the money was that if she had deposited the money in cash in the bank, she would not be able to transfer same.

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Mr Ciroma said Trimizi Usman and Hassan Dantani, upon their representatives collecting the money, in turn, transferred the dollars equivalent “less their charges into a designated account provided by Aisha Achimugu.”

He agreed with Mr Usman’s question that in forex transaction, a transfer can only be made from an account where the money came by way of inflow and not by cash deposit.

When the lawyer asked Mr Ciroma that Mrs Achimugu needed the dollar transfer to purchase her two oil blocks, the PW-1 responded in affirmative.

The witness told the court that he is a member of BDC Traders Association Wuse Zone 4 in Abuja.

He said that was why when he made his statements to EFCC on April 14, April 11 and May 7, the executive members of the association were with him at the time.

Mr Ciroma, who agreed that he was duly cautioned before writing the extra-judicial statements, admitted that there was no part he informed the defendants, particularly Mr Buba, that his BDC licence had expired.

Also while being cross-examined by Mr Ibrahim, who appeared for the 2nd defendant, Mr Ciroma agreed that he had never seen Mr Mbagwu physically before.

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He also admitted that he had never produced any text or Whatsapp message between him and Mbagwu before the court before.

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President Donald Trump is once again referencing his wish to be “heaven-bound”

Speaking to press aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Oct. 12, the president, 79, answered a question about his August statements regarding his attempts to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine — during which he said, “If I can save 7,000 people a week from being killed, I think that’s pretty — I want to try to get to heaven if possible.”

“I’m being a little cute,” Trump told reporters on Sunday about his previous comments, before quipping, “I don’t think there’s anything going to get me in heaven.”

“I really don’t. I think I’m not maybe heaven-bound. I may be in heaven right now as we fly on Air Force One,” he continued. “I’m not sure I’m going to be able to make heaven, but I’ve made life a lot better for a lot of people.”

Trump went on to tell the press that “had the election of 2020 not been rigged,” he could have prevented Russian President Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine.

“We had an incompetent administration. We had an incompetent president. And because of a crooked election, millions of people are dead,” Trump said, referring to former President Joe Biden. “And by the way, the Israeli thing was much harder to get settled because of the past administration.”

During a phone interview with Fox & Friends on Aug. 19, the president gave a new explanation for taking action to end the war in Ukraine — including positioning himself as a mediator between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

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“If I can save 7,000 people a week from being killed, I think that’s pretty — I want to try to get to heaven if possible,” Trump said at the time.

“I’m hearing that I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole,” he added, to laughter from the Fox News hosts. “But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.”

Last month, Trump referenced his goal to “get into heaven” again when his campaign sent out emails asking for donations that read, “I want to try and get to Heaven.”

The recent emails — which reportedly began on Aug. 23 — requested supporters to donate $15 during a “24-HOUR TRUMP FUNDRAISING BLITZ” to the president, the Independent, Snopes and Newsweek reported. The new emails’ subject line includes, “I want to try and get to Heaven,” per the outlets.

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“Last year, I came millimeters from death when that bullet pierced through my skin. My triumphant return to the White House was never supposed to happen!” the email says in reference to the July 2024 assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pa.

“But I believe that God saved me for one reason: TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!,” the message says, according to the Independent. “I certainly wasn’t supposed to survive an assassin’s bullet, but by the grace of the almighty God, I did. SO NOW, I have no other choice but to answer the Call to Duty, but I can’t do it alone.”

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During a briefing that same day, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt clarified that she didn’t believe Trump was joking.

“I think the president was serious,” she said. “I think the president wants to get to heaven — as I hope we all do in this room as well.”

Stock photo of airplanes taking off and landing at Laguardia airport in New York
Trump and Putin failed to reach a peace deal or agree to a ceasefire during their recent summit in Alaska on Aug. 15, despite Trump having vaguely threatened “very severe consequences” if Russia didn’t comply.

Days after his meeting with Putin, Trump changed his tune, telling Zelenskyy and other European leaders that he didn’t think a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine was necessary or even realistic while larger peace negotiations are underway.

The president admitted to the difficulty of negotiating with Putin during his remarks at the Kennedy Center on Aug. 13.

“I’ve had a lot of good conversations with [Putin]. Then I go home and I see that a rocket hit a nursing home or a rocket hit an apartment building and people are laying dead in the streets,” Trump said.

People

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Peruvian lawmakers have taken decisive action by voting to remove President Dina Boluarte from office following widespread public dissatisfaction with the country’s escalating crime rates and ongoing political scandals.

In a late-night session held in Lima, Congress reached a majority decision to impeach the president, citing “permanent moral incapacity” as the basis for their decision. Out of the 130 members of Congress, 118 voted in favor of the motion, effectively determining Boluarte’s political fate after she declined to appear before lawmakers to present her defense.

Congress leader José Jerí immediately announced, “The president’s impeachment has been approved,” before taking the oath as interim president. He will oversee the country until new elections scheduled for April 2026.

Boluarte’s presidency, which began in December 2022, has been dogged by protests, corruption allegations, and surging gang violence. Her failure to reduce crime including rising cases of extortion and murder linked to organised groups, sparked widespread frustration among Peruvians.

She had already survived several impeachment attempts before Friday’s vote. This latest one followed weeks of demonstrations against a controversial pension reform law and outrage over reports that she accepted luxury watches and jewellery, a scandal widely known as “Rolexgate.”

Boluarte also drew criticism earlier this year for awarding herself a significant pay rise, even as unemployment and inflation worsened across the country.

As of the time of this press report, former President Boluarte remained silent on her removal, while security forces increased patrols around government buildings amid fears of renewed protests.

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Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has criticised the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, accusing him of evading questions about the cost of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project approved by President Bola Tinubu, Politics Nigeria.

Makinde, who spoke on Friday, was reacting to Umahi’s heated exchange with Arise TV presenter Rufai Oseni earlier in the week, during which the minister declined to provide a cost breakdown of the project on a per-kilometre basis.

Oseni had asked Umahi to explain the project’s cost per kilometre, a question the minister dismissed as “elementary,” insisting that the prices vary along different sections of the road and that the journalist lacked the technical knowledge to understand the process.

Umahi said, “Keep quiet and stop saying what you don’t know. I’m a professor in this field… The prices are different. The next kilometre is different from the next kilometre.”

Governor Makinde, however, defended the journalist, saying Umahi’s evasiveness was unnecessary.

“They asked a minister how much the coastal road is, and then you’re dancing around, saying the next kilometre is different from the next. Then what is the average cost?” Makinde said.

He compared the coastal project to road works executed under his administration, providing clear figures.

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“When we did the Oyo to Iseyin road, it was about ₦9.99 billion for roughly 35 kilometres, an average of ₦238 million per kilometre.

“For the Iseyin to Ogbomoso road, 76 kilometres cost ₦43 billion, about ₦500 million per kilometre. And that included two bridges,” the governor explained.

Chief John Uche, the inaugural president of Ohaneze Ndigbo in Lagos State, emphasised the harmonious relations and intermarriages among the Igbo community, declaring that they had successfully integrated into the social fabric of the city without any significant conflicts at the time.

He pointed out that the Igbo people have played a pivotal role in the economic development of Lagos State, attributing an impressive 75 percent of the state’s economic growth to their contributions.

In an interview with Nigerian Tribune, Chief Uche further noted the historical complexities surrounding land ownership, mentioning how the original Lagosians sold their land to the Igbo community and later contested their rights to that land. He posed a thought-provoking question, asking, “Who truly owns the land?”

He said: “The Igbo intermarried and mingled without any crisis. We contributed to the growth of Lagos State. Our contribution is not less than 75 percent of the economy of Lagos State. They sold their land to us and later come to tell me that we are not land owners. Who owns the land?”

The Presidency has faulted the World Bank’s latest economic report, which estimated that about 139 million Nigerians are living in poverty, describing the figure as exaggerated and disconnected from the country’s prevailing realities.

The new figure by the organisation represents an increase from 129 million in April 2025.

President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare, in a statement posted on his official X handle on Wednesday, said the World Bank’s poverty estimate must be “properly contextualised” within the framework of global poverty measurement models.

“While Nigeria values its partnership with the World Bank and appreciates its contributions to policy analysis, the figure quoted must be properly contextualised. It is unrealistic,” Dare said.

According to the Presidency, the global lender’s estimate was based on the $2.15 per person per day international poverty line, set in 2017 using Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). It said the figure should not be mistaken for an actual headcount of poor Nigerians.

The statement explained that, when converted to nominal terms, the $2.15 benchmark equals about N100,000 per month at the current exchange rate, which is significantly higher than Nigeria’s new minimum wage of N70,000. It added that the PPP methodology relies on historical consumption data—Nigeria’s last major household survey was conducted in 2018/2019—and often fails to account for the large informal and subsistence sectors that sustain millions of Nigerian families.

“There must be caution against interpreting the World Bank’s numbers as a literal, real-time headcount,” the Presidency said. “The figure is an analytical construct, not a direct reflection of local income realities.”

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The Presidency, therefore, described the World Bank’s estimate as a modelled global projection rather than an empirical reflection of living conditions in 2025. Dare stressed that the administration’s focus was on changing the trajectory, not debating static figures, adding that Nigeria’s economy was now on a recovery and reform path aimed at achieving inclusive growth and social protection.

He noted that the administration has expanded a number of social welfare and economic initiatives under the Renewed Hope Agenda to cushion the impact of recent reforms while laying the foundation for long-term prosperity. These, he said, include the Conditional Cash Transfer programme, which now covers 15 million households nationwide with digital verification through the National Social Register; the Renewed Hope Ward Development Programme targeting all 8,809 electoral wards with micro-infrastructure and social projects; and the strengthening of National Social Investment Programmes such as N-Power, GEEP micro-loans, and school feeding schemes to support jobs, businesses, and education.

He further cited food security initiatives involving the distribution of subsidised grains and fertilisers, mechanisation partnerships, and the revival of strategic food reserves to stabilise staple prices. The Renewed Hope Infrastructure Fund, he said, is financing key road, housing, and power projects to lower living costs and create jobs, while the National Credit Guarantee Company is expanding affordable credit access for small businesses, women, and youth entrepreneurs through risk-sharing arrangements with commercial banks.

The Presidency maintained that the Tinubu administration was tackling Nigeria’s poverty challenge by addressing the structural distortions that have constrained productivity and inclusive growth for decades. It explained that ongoing reforms such as the removal of fuel subsidy, exchange rate unification, and fiscal reallocation of funds toward productive sectors were “painful but necessary choices” aimed at fixing the root causes of poverty rather than its symptoms.

It noted that even the World Bank had acknowledged that these reforms are already restoring macroeconomic stability and growth momentum. The government emphasised that economic recovery alone is not enough unless it translates into real welfare gains for ordinary Nigerians. According to the statement, the administration’s medium-term priority is to ensure that macroeconomic stability leads to affordable food, quality jobs, and reliable infrastructure.

It added that major investments were underway in agriculture, manufacturing, and power, including new gas-to-power projects and skill development hubs expected to boost job creation and reduce living costs. “Nigerians should begin to feel visible improvements in food prices, income, and purchasing power as these programmes mature,” the statement said.

The Presidency also revealed that efforts were ongoing to consolidate the nation’s social protection architecture under a unified, data-driven framework to enhance transparency and ensure that no vulnerable community is left behind. It said the administration was expanding the National Social Register and scaling up existing social investment schemes to provide targeted support to poor households.

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The Presidency reaffirmed President Tinubu’s commitment to building a resilient and inclusive economy that directly improves living standards. “Nigeria rejects exaggerated statistical interpretations detached from local realities. The government remains focused on empowering households, expanding opportunity, and laying the foundation for a fairer, more prosperous nation,” the statement said.

Earlier on Wednesday, the World Bank released its October 2025 Nigeria Development Update titled “From Policy to People: Bringing the Reform Gains Home.” The Bank’s Country Director for Nigeria, Mathew Verghis, warned that about 139 million Nigerians were living in poverty despite recent economic stabilisation efforts.

Verghis commended the Tinubu administration for implementing bold reforms in the exchange rate and petroleum subsidy regimes, describing them as “foundational” steps that could transform Nigeria’s long-term economic trajectory.

“Over the last two years, Nigeria has commendably implemented bold reforms, notably around the exchange rate and the petrol subsidy. These are the foundations on which the country has the opportunity to build a programme that can transform its economic trajectory,” he said.

However, he cautioned that while the reforms were yielding macroeconomic improvements—such as rising revenues, stable reserves, and easing inflation—the benefits had yet to reach most Nigerian households. “Despite these stabilisation gains, many households are still struggling with eroded purchasing power. Poverty, which began to rise in 2019 due to policy missteps and external shocks such as COVID-19, has continued to increase even after the reforms. In 2025, we estimate that 139 million Nigerians live in poverty,” Verghis added.