Diezani Forfeits $153m To Nigerian Govt
Former Nigerian oil minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke
temporarily forfeited $153.3 million to
the Nigerian government on Friday, January 6, 2017.
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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