Former Nigerian
oil minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke temporarily forfeited $153.3 million to the Nigerian government today.
This was
sequel to an order by a Federal High Court
in Lagos.
The seized
money, according to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was stolen
from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and stashed in three banks in
Nigeria, in US dollars and Naira.
Out of the
loot, N23.4 billion was kept in Sterling Bank Plc. The sum
of N9.08 billion was kept in First Bank
Plc and $5m in Access Bank Plc.
Justice Muslim Hassan, who gave the order, gave Sterling Bank and any other interested
party 14 days to appear before him to prove the legitimacy of the monies,
failing which the funds would be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government
of Nigeria
The judge
made the order in favour of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission which
appeared before him today with an ex parte application seeking the temporary
forfeiture of the funds.
In a
nine-paragraph affidavit by by EFCC investigator, Moses Awolusi
and filed in support of the ex parte application, the anti-graft agency discovered how sometime in December 2014 Diezani invited
a former Managing Director of Fidelity Bank Plc, Nnamdi Okonkwo, to her office.
There they hatched the plan of how $153,310,000 would be moved from NNPC to
Okonkwo to be saved for Diezani.
Diezani,
according to Awolusi, instructed Okonkwo to ensure that the money was “neither
credited into any known account nor captured in any transaction platforms” of
Fidelity Bank.
Okonkwo
accepted and implemented the deal leading to the movement of $153,310,000 from
NNPC to Fidelity Bank.
He
averred further that two former Group
Executive Directors of Finance and Account of NNPC, B.O.N. Otti and Stanley
Lawson, helped Diezani to move the cash from NNPC, Abuja to the headquarters of
Fidelity Bank in Lagos.
Awolusi said
in a desperate bid to conceal the source of the money, Okonkwo, upon receiving
it, instructed the Country Head of Fidelity Bank, Mr. Martin Izuogbe, to take
$113,310,000 cash out of the money to the Executive Director, Commercial and
Institutional Bank, Sterling Bank Plc, Lanre Adesanya, to keep.
He said the
remaining $40m was taken in cash to the Executive Director, Public Sector
Accountant, First Bank, Dauda Lawal, to keep.
The
investigator said out of the $113,310,000 handed over to Adesanya, a sum of
$108,310,000 was invested in an off balance sheet investment using Sterling
Asset Management Trustees Limited.
The money
was was subsequently converted into
N23.4 billion and saved in Sterling
Bank.
Awolusi said
the EFCC had recovered the N23.4bn in draft and had registered it as an exhibit
marked, EFCC 01.
The
investigator said the EFCC had also recovered another $5m out of the money kept
with the Managing Director of Access Bank Plc, Mr. Herbert Wigwe.
He said the
$5m was recovered in draft and had been registered as an exhibit marked, EFCC
02.
According to
him, First Bank’s Executive Director, Lawal had
similarly converted the $40m kept with him to N9,080,000,000.
Awolusi,
however, said the EFCC had recovered that also in draft and registered it as
Exhibit EFCC 03.
Moving the
ex parte application today, the EFCC lawyer, Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo, urged Justice
Hassan to order the temporary forfeiture of the funds to the Federal Government
and to order Sterling Bank and Lawal, who were joined as defendants in the
application, as well as any other interested parties, to appear in court within
two weeks to show cause why the funds should not be permanently forfeited to
the Federal Government.
Oyedepo, who
said the application was brought pursuant to Section 17 of the Advance Fee
Fraud and Other Related Offences Act No. 14, 2006 and Section 44(2)(‘) of the
1999 Constitution, said granting the application was in the best interest of
justice.
Justice Hassan granted the order and adjourned
till January 24, 2016 for the respondents to appear in court to show cause why
the funds should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government of
Nigeria.
NAN
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