According to
the court papers argued by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),
the property, which has 24 apartments, 18 flats and six penthouses, is located
as Building 3, Block B, Bella Vista Plot 1, Zone N, Federal Government Layout,
Banana Island Foreshore Estate.
Justice Chuka
Obiozor of the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, on Wednesday ordered the
temporary forfeiture of a $37.5m property at Banana Island bought by a
former
Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, in 2013.
According to
the court papers argued by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),
the property, which has 24 apartments, 18 flats and six penthouses, is located
as Building 3, Block B, Bella Vista Plot 1, Zone N, Federal Government Layout,
Banana Island Foreshore Estate.
According to Saharareporters; Apart from
the property, the court also ordered the temporary forfeiture of the sums of
$2,740,197.96 and N84,537,840.70, said to be part of the rent collected on the
property.
The funds
were said to have been found in a Zenith Bank account number 1013612486.
Anselem
Ozioko, counsel for the EFCC, had told the judge that the EFCC reasonably
suspected that the property was acquired with proceeds of alleged unlawful
activities of the Minister.
He said an
investigation by the EFCC revealed that Mrs. Alison-Madueke made the $37.5m
payment for the purchase of the property in cash, adding that the money was
moved straight from her house in Abuja and paid into the seller's First Bank
account in Abuja.
"Nothing
could be more suspicious than someone keeping such huge amounts in her
apartment,” he said. “Why was she doing that, to avoid attention?”
He
continued: "We are convinced beyond reasonable doubt because as of the
time this happened, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke was still in public service as
the Minister of Petroleum Resources."
The ex-parte
application taken before the judge was filed pursuant to Section 17 of the
Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, No. 14, 2006 and Section
44(2) (k) of the constitution.
Listed as respondents
in the application are Mrs. Alison-Madueke, a legal practitioner, Afamefuna
Nwokedi, and a company, Rusimpex Limited.
In a
41-paragraph affidavit attached to the application, an investigative officer
with the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, explained that Nwokedi, in connivance with
Mrs. Alison-Madueke, purposely incorporated the company, Rusimpex Limited, on
September 11, 2013 to facilitate the alleged fraud scheme.
According to
Bawa, when Nwokedi was questioned by the EFCC, the lawyer explained that he had
approached Mrs. Alison-Madueke for opportunities in the Oil and Gas industry
but the ex-minister told him that being a lawyer, she did not have any such
opportunity for him and asked him whether he could in the alternative manage
landed properties, an offer which Nwokedi accepted.
Bawa said
Nwokedi later registered Rusimpex Limited at the Corporate Affairs Commission,
wherein a lawyer in his law firm, Adetula Ayokunle, and a Russian, Vladmir
Jourauleu, were listed as the directors of the company, while the address of
Nwokedi's law firm in Ikoyi, Lagos was registered as the business address of
Rusimpex Limited.
The
investigator added that when Ayokunle was questioned by the EFCC, he explained
that he only appended his signature on the CAC documents at his boss'
instruction, while Jourauleu denied knowledge of the company.
The
investigator explained: "Sometime in 2013, the former Minister of
Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, invited Barrister Afamefuna
Nwokedi, the Principal Counsel of Stillwaters Law Firm, to her house in Abuja
for a meeting where she informed the said Barrister Afamefuna Nwokedi to
incorporate a company and use same as a front to manage landed properties on
her behalf without using her name in any of the incorporation documents.”
He further
explained that Mrs. Alison-Madueke further directed Mr. Afamefuna Nwokedi to
meet with Mr. Bisi Onasanya, the Group Managing Director of First Bank of
Nigeria Plc for that purpose.
"Mr.
Stephen Onasanya was invited by the commission and he came and volunteered an
extrajudicial statement wherein he stated that he marketed a property at Bella
Vista, Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos, belonging to Mr. Youseff Fattau of Ibatex
Nigeria Limited to Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke and Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke
later bought the property from Mr. Youseff Fattau, through her lawyer, Mr.
Afamefuna Nwokedi (who she introduced to him) and that payment for the said
property was made through the Abuja office of First Bank of Nigeria Plc.
"First
Bank of Nigeria Plc, through Mr. Barau Muazu, wrote to the commission and also
volunteered an extra-judicial statement in writing that they made the payments
totaling US37,500,000 to Ibatex Nigeria Limited & YF Construction
Development and Real Estate Limited on behalf of Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke
and that they collected the entire cash from Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke at her
residence of No. 10, Fredrick Chiluba Close of Jose Marti Street, Asokor, Abuja
and paid into the First Bank of Nigeria Plc accounts of Ibatex and YF
Construction Development and Real Estate Limited on her instruction."
After
listening to the EFCC lawyer, Ozioko on Tuesday, Justice Obiozor made an order
temporarily seizing the property and the funds.
He then
directed that the order should be published in a national newspaper. He adjourned till August 7, 2017 for anyone
interested in the property and funds to appear before him.
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