A witness, Trinity Usman, testified in court that he received and transferred $3 million into the account of Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Ltd, a company owned by Aisha Achimugu.
According to Usman, the transaction was initiated by Suleiman Ciroma, who requested the transfer due to restrictions on depositing large cash sums directly into a bank. Usman, a Bureau De Change operator and businessman, stated that he used his oil and gas company’s account, Triple A and Tee Oil Nig Ltd, for the transfer because his BDC license had been suspended at the time. He claimed to have made the payment in four tranches in April 2025 but couldn’t recall the specific dates.
“Ciroma contacted me that he had a transaction requiring three million US dollars to be transferred to Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Ltd. I had the money in my company account, Triple A and Tee Oil and Gas Nigeria Ltd, and after we agreed, he gave me the dollar payment in cash.
I then transferred the equivalent amount into Oceangate’s account, The cash transaction from Ciroma was made through my staff, Abdulkadir Mohammed and Kabir Haruna. The naira equivalent was transferred into the account of Triple A and Tee Service Venture Ltd and then converted to dollars before being sent to Oceangate’s account,” Usman told the Federal Court in Abuja, on Friday October 17, 2025.
The funds were intended for the purchase of two oil blocks, and Usman admitted to making a profit from the transaction. However, he didn’t inform the defendants, Halima Buba and Innocent Mbagwu, about the suspension of his BDC license or the profit made from the transaction.
Buba and Mbagwu, senior executives of SunTrust Bank, are facing charges of money laundering to the tune of $12 million. They pleaded not guilty and were granted bail in the sum of ₦100 million each, with one surety in like sum.
