The Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission has discovered a $37.5m (N11.75bn) luxury
high-rise building on Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos, allegedly belonging to the
embattled former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
This is just
as the EFCC revealed on Friday that it discovered $9.3m and £74,000 belonging
to a former Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation,
Mr. Andrew Yakubu. The money was allegedly kept in a bungalow situated in the
slums of Kaduna.
The two
discoveries were made as part of investigations into a string of fraudulent
activities in the NNPC, which cost the nation over $20bn at a time the oil price
stood at about $100 per barrel on the average
According to
impeccable sources within the EFCC, the building allegedly belonging to Diezani
was purchased between 2011 and 2012. It is situated in the same estate where
Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, resides.
Saturday PUNCH
learnt that the building comprises 18 flats and six penthouses.
Properties on
Banana Island are believed to be among the most expensive in Africa with a plot
of land selling between $4m (N1.25bn) and $6m (N1.8bn), according to Forbes
Magazine.
A source at
the EFCC said, “The aggressive drive by the EFCC to recover all hidden assets
of former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, who is under
investigation for corruption and money laundering, produced another
breakthrough this week with the discovery of a property acquired through shell
companies by the former minister at upscale Banana Island in Lagos.
“The property
is a 15-storey edifice comprising 18 flats and six penthouses.
“The property
was acquired by the former minister between 2011 and 2012 at a total cost of
$37.5m from the developers, YF Construction Development and Real Estate.
The property
was allegedly acquired in the name of a shell company, Rusimpex Limited under
the control of certain Mr. Afamefuna Nwokedi of Stillwaters law firm, in
Lagos.”
Last year, the
commission seized an $18m mansion in the Asokoro area of Abuja allegedly
belonging to the ex-minister.
She has,
however, denied all the allegations levelled against her.
Meanwhile, the
commission has recovered $9.7m and £74,000 from a former GMD of the NNPC, Mr.
Andrew Yakubu.
Ironically,
Yakubu, who served as the head of the corporation between 2012 and 2014, is the
key witness of the EFCC against the Chairman of Atlantic Energy Brass
Development Limited and Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited, Jide Omokore,
who is standing trial for an alleged $1.6bn fraud.
The EFCC said
in a statement by its spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, that the money was found
in a safe hidden in a slum in Kaduna State.
The statement
read in part, “A special operation conducted by operatives of the EFCC on
February 3, 2017 on a building belonging to a former Group Managing Director of
the NNPC, Dr. Andrew Yakubu, in Kaduna yielded the recovery of a staggering sum
of $9,772,800.
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