A bank manager has told how two aeroplanes full of banknotes were used in a cash exchange being investigated in a major Nigerian corruption case.
The quantity of cash, totalling 1.2bn naira ($3.8m; ยฃ3m), was so great that it took 10 days to count it, Sunday Oluseye told the court in Abuja.
His testimony forms part of a case linked to a multi-billion dollar corruption scandal.
President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to tackle corruption.
“I got worried when I saw the huge amount of money conveyed by the aircrafts that day,” Mr Oluseye told the court, in comments reported by Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), a government anti-corruption body.
He told the court that most of the money was in 500 and 1,000 naira notes.
The evidence was given as part of a money-laundering case brought by the EFCC against Abiodun Agbele, whom the body names as a close ally of the governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose.
The EFCC says the case is linked to a wider investigation into Nigeria’s former national security adviser Sambo Dasuki, who has been charged for an alleged multi-million dollar fraud in which government funds earmarked to fight Boko Haram were stolen.
Mr Dasuki and Mr Agbele both deny the charges.
Corruption is endemic in Nigeria and so far the EFCC has only managed to secure a handful of convictions.
