Federal High
Court in Abuja has ordered an interim forfeiture of the sums of N500m and
$500,000 said to have been looted from the Paris Club refunds made by the
Federal Government in favor of the 36 states of the federation.
The sums of
money said to have been recovered from two firms, First Generation Mortgage
Bank Limited, and Gosh Projects Limited were allegedly linked to Governor of
Zamfara State and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Abdulaziz Yari.
The Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission alleged that the sums of money were
fraudulently diverted from the NGF’s bank account on the instruction of Yari.
The
commission also alleged, in an affidavit filed in support of its ex parte
application seeking the interim forfeiture of the sums of money, that the N500m
was diverted to offset Yari’s personal loan obtained from the First Generation
Mortgage Bank Limited.
It also
alleged that the second firm, Gosh Projects Limited, utilized most of the
proceeds of the alleged loot, transferred to it for the purchase of building
materials for Yari’s 100-room hotel project in Lagos.
Gosh
Projects was also said to have used part of the looted funds for the purchase
of treasury bills and transfers to offshore accounts.
SEE ALSO
Governor
Abdul’aziz Abubakar Yari Of Zamfara Builds $3m Hotel In Lagos With Funds Stolen
From Paris Club Refund Cash
206 Comments
1 Month Ago
Our
correspondent learned on Tuesday that Justice Nnamdi Dimgba made the interim
forfeiture order of the sums of money to the Federal Government in a ruling
delivered on June 30, 2017.
The judge
also ordered that any person(s) or body with interest in the funds must, within
14 days of the publication of the interim order of forfeiture in any national
daily, show cause why an order of final forfeiture to the Federal Government of
the funds should not be made.
The ruling
was delivered in an ex-parte application jointly filed on June 19, 2017, by the
Federal Government of Nigeria (the first applicant) and the EFCC (the second
applicant).
First
Generation Mortgage Bank Limited and Gosh Projects Limited, from whom the
allegedly looted funds were recovered, were joined as respondents.
SEE ALSO
How Zamfara
Gov. Abdulaziz Yari Bought $1m US Mansion, Kept Foreign Accounts Two Years
After Assuming Office
115 Comments
6 Days Ago
After the
application was moved by the EFCC’s counsel, Mr. Ben Ikani, on June 30, Justice
Dimgba granted the three prayers sought by the two applicants.
The judge
granted prayers, including “an order of interim forfeiture to the Federal
Government of Nigeria (the first applicant) of the sum of N500,000,000.00
recovered from the first respondent (First Generation Mortgage Bank Ltd.) and
presently in the possession of the second applicant (EFCC) in its Recovered
Funds Account domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“An order of
interim forfeiture to the Federal Republic of Nigeria (first applicant) of the
sum of US$500,000.00, recovered from the second applicant (Gosh Projects
Limited) and presently in the possession of the second applicant (EFCC) in its
Recovered Funds Account domiciled with the CBN.”
In an
affidavit filed in support of EFCC’s ex parte motion, an operative of the
anti-graft agency investigating the case, Mr. Osas Azonabor, alleged that
investigation had revealed that the Paris Club refund involved “complex case of
money laundering.”
According to
him, firms that had no contract with the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, which was
holding the Paris Club refunds in its account on behalf of all the States
government, were used to divert about N2.2bn from the NGF account.
The
investigator alleged that the sum of N500m, recovered from First Generation
Mortgage Bank Limited, was part of the N2.2bn “fraudulently transferred by the
NGF to BINA Consults and Integrated Services Limited on December 23, 2016.
He accused
Yari of giving the instruction for the transfer of the N500m out of the N2.2bn
to the First Generation Mortgage Bank Limited.
On how the
alleged fraud was discovered, the investigator said the commission, sometime in
January 2017, received intelligence in respect of a case against the NGF.
Azonabor
stated that the intelligence alleged conspiracy, criminal misappropriation of
public funds involving the sum of N19,439,225,871.11 out of the Paris Club
refunds made by the Federal Government in favor of the 36 states of the
federation.
According to
the EFCC investigator, a preliminary investigation conducted by the commission
“revealed that the 36 state governments, under the auspices of the NGF, engaged
the services of Bizplus GSCL Consortium”.
He said the
state governments also asked Bizplus GSCL to “recover amounts due to the states
from first line charge made on them from 1995 to 2002 for a success fee of two
per cent payable by the NGF.”
The
investigator said it was agreed that two per cent of the total amounts due to
the states as payment to Bizplus GSCL Consortium.
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