Provide evidence of N50m bribe, forex dealer dares Mbu

Joseph Mbu

A foreign exchange dealer, Alhaji Suleiman Yerima, who accused Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Joseph Mbu, of directing policemen to torture him over a contentious forex business transaction, has challenged him to provide evidence of the N50m bribery allegation levelled against him.

Yerima stated that Mbu should tender evidence that he was offered N50m to compromise the police investigation, stressing that the allegation was diversionary and a ploy to cover the atrocity committed by policemen led by DSP Ibrahim Dantoro on the AIG’s instruction.

Mbu had last week accused Yerima of offering him bribes to drop the investigation into a forex business transaction between Yerima and two Chartered Bank workers that went awry.

But speaking on Friday in Abuja, the forex dealer described the AIG as “a confused and drowning man who is doing a hatchet job for some individuals who are conduits through which monies are being taken out of the country.”

Yerima stated that the police personnel and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission operatives have continued to lay siege to his house and that of Uwem Antia, his business partner, in violation of a court order.

He said, “As an experienced policeman and detective, what should you do if someone offers you N50m bribe? You will collect the money and tender it as an exhibit and file additional charges against the suspect.

“Mbu is a drowning man; if Mbu was offered a bribe, either he had collected it and the money was not enough and he is now complaining. So for him to say nobody was tortured is an aberration because I and Antia were tortured and the evidences are there.”

The businessman said he was ready to face trial, adding that the police and the EFCC should arraign him and his partner in court if they have proofs that they had violated the law, insisting that the agencies have no powers to detain them indefinitely.

“If two security agencies investigate a case for 80 days, what should they do after? They should arraign us in court and let the court jail us if we are guilty,” he dared the police.

Yerima insisted that he had fulfilled his part of the forex transaction when he delivered $1m cash and additional $2.250m to two workers of Chartered Bank,  Denis Ale and Mrs. Gladys Aginwa, in exchange for the N627m that was paid to him.

Asked if he is facing trial for forex fraud at the Jos High Court as alleged by Mbu, the businessman explained that “the Judge handling the matter had said the proof of evidenced was not weighty enough, but the case was not dismissed because the other party asked for a transfer of the suit from Lagos to Jos.”