A witness has told the Federal High Court in Abuja how top bosses of SunTrust Bank — Halima Buba (MD/CEO) and Innocent Mbagwu (Chief Compliance Officer) — allegedly helped oil businesswoman Aisha Achimugu move $12 million in cash outside normal banking channels.
Suleiman Ciroma, the first EFCC witness, said the huge cash was paid out from SunTrust branches in Abuja and Lagos within just 10 days in March 2025. He said the deals didn’t follow proper banking rules.
Both bank bosses were charged by the EFCC on 13 June for money laundering — six counts in all. The EFCC said they broke sections of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 by allowing large cash transactions outside the formal banking system.
They both pleaded not guilty and got bail of ₦100 million each.
Ciroma, a bureau de change operator, told the court he acted as the go-between for Ms Achimugu and the bank bosses. He said he got a call from Ms Achimugu in March about some forex transactions. He then called Ms Buba, who confirmed she was aware.
How the money moved
EFCC’s lawyer, Ekele Iheanacho (SAN), led Ciroma in evidence. He said the cash payments started on 10 March when an agent named Iliya collected $1 million at the Abuja branch to pay into the Zenith Bank account of Oceangate Energy Oil & Gas, linked to Achimugu.
On the same day, another $1 million was collected by Abdulkadir Mohammed, and another $2 million by one Kabiru.
In total, Ciroma said the cash swaps hit $12 million, split between Abuja (handled by Buba) and Lagos (handled by Mbagwu). He added that he made ₦15 million profit for his part.
When asked why Achimugu moved the money, he said she told him it was to buy an oil block and needed the dollar inflows for Oceangate.
Ciroma also gave the court WhatsApp chats with Ms Buba and other documents as proof. Even though defence lawyers Johnson Usman and M.S. Ibrahim objected, the judge, Emeka Nwite, accepted the papers as evidence (Exhibit P1).
The case was adjourned to 18 July for more hearing.
