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Tag: EFCC

  • How we learnt of Saraki’s London property – EFCC witness

    How we learnt of Saraki’s London property – EFCC witness

    A prosecution witness, Michael Wetkas, on Wednesday gave details of how investigators discovered that Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has a property in London, which he bought with a N375 million loan from the Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB) Plc, but allegedly failed to declare it after his tenure as governor in 2011.

    Wetkas, who spoke during cross-examination by Saraki’s lawyer, Paul Usoro (SAN), at the resumption of the false asset declaration trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), said the London property was acquired in 2010.

    He said the Senate president failed to declare the property in the asset declaration form he completed on completing his second term as Governor of Kwara State in 2011.

    The witness, an operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), said Saraki obtained the N375m loan from GTB in 2010 with which he procured the London property through a mortgage redemption payment system.

    He said there was debit entry of $1.2m on the Senate president’s dollar account in favour of the pounds sterling account on February 10, 2010 and $1m on February 15, 2010.

    Reading from Saraki’s statement of account with GTB, the witness traced how the loan disbursed in his naira account was transferred to the dollar account and later into the pounds sterling account.

    Wetkas said the EFCC foreign investigative partners “unofficially” disclosed the address of the property as No 8, Whittaker Street, London and that it had a title number NGN802235.

     

  • Anti-graft war: Plea bargain inevitable for EFCC – Sagay

    Anti-graft war: Plea bargain inevitable for EFCC – Sagay

    The Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), said plea bargain is inevitable for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFC) and other agencies in order to recover looted funds by past public officers.

    He said it is easier to convict a man who steals a goat in Nigeria than a bigwig who had stolen billions from government coffers.

    He also said corrupt public officers deserve about 15 to 50 years jail terms.

    He disclosed that his committee will propose to the National Judicial Council (NJC) the removal of any judge who issues a perpetual injunction against interrogation, investigation, arrest or prosecution of corruption suspects.

    Sagay, who bared his mind in an interview with the in-house magazine of EFCC, “Zero Tolerance,” said without plea bargain, the anti-corruption agencies will just be prosecuting cases endlessly.

    He said: “Oh definitely. There has to be plea bargain or otherwise your agency will just go on prosecuting endlessly. If you have a case in which the person who is being charged quickly says ‘look, I am guilty, what sort of mitigation can I enjoy? I am going to return the money’ you need to look at it. That way in six months the matter is over and you can go on to the next case.

    “But where you don’t have plea bargaining, you have to fight, bring all the evidence and prove the case beyond reasonable doubt before the court. This will cost time, money and energy. What you could achieve with plea bargaining in three to six months, you may spend three to five years at great expenses to the state.

    “ Plea bargain for me is inevitable provided there are very strict guidelines so that you don’t have a situation where somebody pays N3million and takes N20 billion away without a term of imprisonment.

    “There is a lot of validity in that opinion because, as we always say, there is a tendency for the man who steals a goat to be easily arrested and convicted and sent to prison for three years and the man who virtually steals billions gets his bail and never sees the walls of the prison. That is the major difficulty in the anti-corruption struggle.”

    On punishment for corrupt elements, Sagay however admitted that he was no longer keen on death sentence.

    He recommended jail terms between 15 and 50 years for corrupt public officers and others.

  • EFCC re-arraigns Oronsaye

    EFCC re-arraigns Oronsaye

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Wednesday re-arraigned a former Head of Service, Steve Oronsaye, at Federal High Court, Abuja, on an amended 35- count charge bordering on N1.2 billion fraud.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that other persons re-arraigned alongside the former HOS were Osarenkhoe Afe and Frederick Hamilton as well as Global Services Limited.

    In the amended charge, the EFCC increased the number of defendants from three to six, with additional three companies, allegedly used to siphon the funds.

    Oronsaye and the five other defendants were accused of fraud and corrupt act, thereby violating the Money Laundering and Prohibition Act of 2004.

    The prosecuting counsel, Mr. Olaleke Atolagbe, said one of the accomplices in the alleged crime, Abdulrasheed Maina, now at large, connived with the defendants to commit the crime.

    According to the charge, the alleged crime hinged on the biometric enrolment job purportedly awarded to Innovative Solutions Limited, without observing due process.

    Counsel to Oronsaye, Mr. Joe Agi (SAN), alongside the other defence counsel, made an oral application, praying the court to allow the defendants continue to enjoy the bail earlier granted them.

    The judge, Justice Gabriel Kolawale fixed June 9 for definite commencement of trial.

  • EFCC grills petitioners against Aregbesola

    EFCC grills petitioners against Aregbesola

    The Ibadan zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Wednesday grilled members the Civil Societies Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun State (CSCEOS), over the group’s petition against Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, on alleged diversion of federal allocation to local governments in the state.

    The Chairman of the group, Mr. Sulaiman Adeniyi, was grilled by operatives of the commission in Ibadan on Tuesday.

    It was learnt that Adeniyi and his colleagues were invited to clarify some grey areas in the petition.

    The human rights group, in its petition to President Muhammadu Buhari and the EFCC, had alleged that Aregbesola and his aides diverted federal allocation meant for the 30 local governments in the state. It also alleged that most of the projects embarked upon by the governor on behalf of the councils did not exist.

    Based on the petition, the EFCC, through a letter signed by the Zonal Head, Ibadan, Akaninyene Ezima, invited CSCEOS to Ibadan to clarify some areas in the petition against the governor.

    After his meeting with the EFCC officials in Ibadan, Adeniyi commended the anti-graft agency for its ‘credible and unbiased investigation into the alleged council funds diversion by Aregbesola from November 2010 to March 2016’.

    Adeniyi said that the group was told by an official of the anti-graft body, Mr. Richard Adejumo, that the invitation was necessary to know the authenticity of the petition in the cause of their investigation.

    His words: “I urge the anti-graft commission to invite all the affected state and local government officials listed. They include the immediate past Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr. Kolapo Alimi; Commissioner for Finance and Economic Planning, Mr. Wale Bolorunduro; their permanent secretaries; the then executive secretaries and heads of local government administration; directors of finance and directors of works. No section of the amended 1999 Constitution gives leeway to any governor to divert the allocations accrued to the local governments from the Federation Account through joint account system.

     

  • EFCC arrests Jonathan’s ex-Principal Private Secretary Hassan Tukur

    EFCC arrests Jonathan’s ex-Principal Private Secretary Hassan Tukur

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday arrested a former Principal Private Secretary to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Mr. Hassan Tukur.

    According to a top source, Tukur was being grilled last night.

    The source said the arrest of Tukur was in connection with the release of some funds by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).

    The source said: “Our operatives have been grilling the ex-Principal Private Secretary in respect of the release of funds by ONSA.

    “These funds have nothing to do with the procurement of funds but certain operational funds.

    “The ex-Principal Private Secretary had been under investigation in the last few months on the arms cash allegedly disbursed to them for campaign purposes and counter-insurgency initiative with Boko Haram.

  • EFCC quizzes ex-Kaduna Governor Yero over N700m

    EFCC quizzes ex-Kaduna Governor Yero over N700m

    •I shared cash to party agents in 23 LGAs, says ex-governor

    Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) detectives have quizzed former Kaduna State Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero for allegedly getting N700million from the N23.29billion cash pumped into the 2015 election by former Oil Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke.

    The ex-governor has admitted receiving the N700million but he said he shared it to party leaders and agents. He is being detained.

    Also in EFCC net are former Bauchi State Government Secretary Ahmed Ibrahim; a former Personal Assistant to ex-Governor Isa Yuguda, Alhaji Sanusi Mohammed Isa and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Secretary Salisu Garba.

    They were arrested and interrogated in Gombe yesterday in connection with N500million allegedly received from the N23.29billion, which the EFCC believes was meant to bribe officials to alter results of the last presidential election in favour of former President Goodluck Jonathan who lost to President Muhammadu Buhari.

    A source in EFCC, who spoke in confidence, said:  “The former governor has been quizzed and detained at our Kano office since Monday.

    “He was implicated by two people who were earlier arrested in connection with the bribe. The two people, the Kaduna State  Chairman of PDP, Haruna Gayya and a former Minister of State for Power Nuhu Way, admitted that when they got the money, they gave it to Yero.

    “Yero confirmed that he received the N700million. But he told our investigators that he shared the cash to party leaders in the 23 local government areas in the state for logistics and party agents.

    “We are expecting him to release the list of beneficiaries to EFCC. As I talk to you, the ex-governor is still in custody because we are still interrogating him on some issues.

    “Our priority is to recover the N700million. We hope he will cooperate with us.”

    The Kano State PDP gubernatorial candidate in the 2015 general election, Malam Salihu Sagir Takai, was also invited by the EFCC Kano Zonal Office over the N50 Million  taken by his Campaign Organisation out of the N950 million allocated to Kano State.

    “Takai, a former Commissioner, Ministry for Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs under the Shekarau Administration whose name featured prominently last week when his Principal and former Foreign Affairs Minister, Ambassador Aminu Wali was interrogated by EFCC Operatives, confirmed receiving the said sum.”

     

  • Osun: EFCC invitation will stop frivolous petitions

    Osun: EFCC invitation will stop frivolous petitions

    The Osun State Government on Monday described as frivolous a petition before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on alleged diversion of local government funds by the Rauf Aregbesola administration.

    The EFCC had last week invited the Civil Societies Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun to its Ibadan office to explain the rationale behind the petition.

    The Director, Bureau of Communication and Strategy in the Office of the Governor, Semiu Okanlawon, in a statement, said: “the self-appointed civil society group is a group that had been making bogus claims against Governor Aregbesola and his government without producing evidence to substantiate any of the allegations.

    “For instance, this was the group that accused Governor Aregbesola of embezzling the N34.988bn bailout loan obtained last year as part of Federal Government’s intervention to assist states meet their salary obligations.

    “The same group had accused Governor Aregbesola of borrowing over N750 billion on projects that have not impacted on the socio-economic lives of the people of Osun. The government had also been accused of planning a mass sack of civil servants in the state especially in the wake of the challenges to meet salary obligations by the state. It is instructive that none of these allegations and others from this same group has been proved to be true.”

    The state government described the group as a “dubious two-man contraption masquerading as a pro-people organization.”

    The statement added: “We must remind Nigerians lest they take this group serious at all that Mr. Sulaiman Adeniyi who claims to be the leader of the group and Seun Adeoye, have been no more than two hired hands of the Peoples Democratic Party in Osun and its allied opposition elements.

    “It is pertinent to state that the so-called civil society group is a contraption hurriedly put together by Adeniyi and Adeoye to push the dubious agenda of their sponsors, the humiliated governorship candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Senator Iyiola Omisore and Mr. Segun Akinwusi respectively to blackmail Governor Aregbesola and his government.

    “When all their antics against the Aregbesola government failed, Nigerians must recall how these characters procured the services of a High Court Judge to write a petition with all forms of spurious allegations which they equally failed to defend.”

  • EFCC: Ex-NIMASA DG ‘converted’ N378m

    EFCC: Ex-NIMASA DG ‘converted’ N378m

    The Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday heard how a former acting Director-General of the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Calistus Obi, allegedly converted over N378 million to his personal use.

    Obi, a former NIMASA Executive Director, Maritime Labour and Cabotage Service, took over from Patrick Akpobolokemi, who is facing five separate charges for fraud and theft.

    Obi, Dismass Alu Adoon, Grand Pact Limited and Global Sea Investment Limited were arraigned on eight counts of converting N378,810,000 from NIMASA.

    At his trial yesterday, an unlicensed Bureau De Change operator, Mallam Sulaiman Oseni, said he changed $111 million for Dismass three times.

    He said he first changed N12 million, which he handed over to him at NIMASA’s office in Apapa.

    According to him, Adoon also sent N49.5 million twice which he changed to dollars and gave him at a hotel in Ikoyi, Lagos.

    Oseni said because his firm was not registered, sometimes he paid the monies given to him into the account of his boss, Mallam Koloni Mohammed.

    Muhammed also testified that he changed of $350,000 USD for the accused persons through Oseni.

    He said he had no business relationship with NIMASA, adding that Oseni forwarded his account details to NIMASA through which the officials paid the monies.

    A Marketer with Heritage Banks Plc, Mr. Saidu Yussuf, said Obi was the only signatory to Global Seal Investment Limited. He said the firm received N15 million from NIMASA’s Committee of Intelligence from where it was transferred to different accounts, including Obi’s.

    A Compliance Officer at Access Bank Plc, Oliver Ewerem, also testified that Global Seal and Knight Sheriff Limited received N15 million each from the account of NIMASA’s Committee on Intelligence Gathering.

    He said the money was transferred into the account of Grand Pack Limited, while N111 million was transferred to Kostal Mega Limited’s account with First Bank Plc, an account belonging to a Bureau De Change operator.

    Trial continues today.

  • EFCC arraigns woman for ‘fraud’

    EFCC arraigns woman for ‘fraud’

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday arraigned a woman, Bisi Olagunju, in an Oyo State High court for allegedly defrauding a contractor of N9 million.

    Olagunju was arraigned on a three-count charge bordering on obtaining money by false pretense.

    The suspect was alleged to have claimed to be Special Adviser to the Chairman of the Urban and Rural Development Committee in the House of Representatives. She allegedly received N9 million in tranches from a contractor, Abiodun Julius, with a promise to facilitate a contract for him at the National Assembly as well as help secure job for his younger brother with the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

    She was arrested after a petition by Julius.

    The charge read: “That you Bisi Lillian Olagunju sometime in November 2015 at Ibadan within the Ibadan Judicial Division with intent to defraud obtained N5million from Abiodun Julius under the false pretense that money represented form part payment to secure a contract for the supply of computers to the National Assembly and which pretence you knew was false.”

    Olagunju, however, pleaded ‘not guilty’ to the charges.

    She was granted bail of N10 million and two sureties by Justice Muktar Abimbola.

    The sureties must be residents within the jurisdiction where the financial crime was committed and must have sufficient evidence of ownership of properties to be verified by the EFCC.

    The judge further ruled that the accused person must deposit her international passport with the court registrar while hearing was fixed for June 13 and 14.

  • $6m fines: Firms fault lawyer’s petition to EFCC

    $6m fines: Firms fault lawyer’s petition to EFCC

    •Tidewater, Tidex deny importation of toxins

    The Tidewater Marine International Inc and Tidex Nigeria Limited have faulted a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) by an Abuja-based lawyer Max Ogar alleging that they imported toxins or toxin laden vessels into Nigeria.

    They also claimed that the Federal Government had never accused the two firms of bringing toxins into the country.

    They explained that the issue of alleged importation of toxins was never part of the agreement between the two companies and the Federal Government.

    The EFCC is currently probing the whereabouts of the payment of $6million (N1.908billion) fines  to the administration of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan by Tidewater in lieu of criminal charges.

    The probe followed a petition by Ogar which implicated a former Minister  and a Senior Advocate in the Settlement of Agreement.

    But in a May 4 letter to The Nation by Dr. B.A.M. Ajibade(SAN), the companies said the two companies have never been accused of importing  toxins nor did the Settlement Agreement make reference to toxins.

    The letter reads: “Our clients’ attention has been drawn to your recent newspaper publication of 26th of April 2016 captioned “Alleged importation of toxins: EFCC probes firm’s payment of $6m to SAN.

    “The publication reported by one Yusuf Alli is in respect of a petition by a firm of legal practitioners, Legal Max, requesting the EFCC to re-investigate a settlement involving our clients and the Federal Government of Nigeria under the auspices of the EFCC in 2010.

    “At Page 7 of the publication, you published of our clients thus: ‘The EFCC is investigating the payment of $6m(N1.908b) fines to the administration of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan by Tidewater for alleged importation of vessels with toxins.

    “Contrary  to your false, defamatory, malicious and injurious publication, our clients have never  been accused of importing toxins into Nigeria nor did the Settlement and Non-Prosecution Agreement entered into between our clients and the Federal Government of Nigeria have anything to do with the importation of toxins into Nigeria.

    The agreement reads in part: “The terms of Settlement and Non-Prosecution Agreement is entered into as of February 2011 between the Federal Government of Nigeria and Tidex Nigeria Limited (TIDEWATER) a limited liability company incorporated under the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as Tidewater and on behalf of each of its parent, subsidiaries, joint venture partner hereinafter collectively referred to as the companies on the other hand.

    “The Federal Government of Nigeria agrees that it will not file or seek to file any criminal charges, complaints, allegations, lawsuits (civil or otherwise), indictments, or causes of action of any kind against Tidewater or any of the companies arising from any of the facts or allegations relating to the investigations carried out into the conduct of Tidewater and the companies business in Nigeria subject matter of the proposed criminal proceedings pursuant to any Nigerian laws and which arise, relate to, or are connected with any failure by tidewater and/or any of the companies to comply with applicable Nigerian law in relation to the temporary importation of vessels into Nigeria, or in relation to the use of Panalpina entities or other customs brokers or agents to secure permits or waivers from any federal government of Nigeria agency (Panalpina Services) including but not limited to actions under the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act, the Criminal Code Act, the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, the Penal Code Act, the Companies and Allied Matters Act, the Customs and Excise Management Act and all other related legislations, regulations or any or successor legislations or modifications in relation thereto.

    “No further and/or other sanctions: the FGN agrees that tidewater and the companies have extensive business interests in Nigeria and that tidewater and the companies intend to continue their regular …..

    “Reimbursement of FGN legal costs and expenses; in recognition of the fact that the FGN has incurred legal costs and expenses in connection with the investigations carried out into the conduct of tidewater and companies’ business in Nigeria, tidewater for tidewater and the companies agrees to reimburse the FGN for legal costs equal to five percent of the ex-gratia payment set out in section 3 above in the sum of $300, 000 or its equivalent in Naira at the prevailing CBN exchange rate. Tidewater will pay the said legal costs and expenses to FGN’s designated counsel (as contained in the schedule 2 hereto) for tidewater and the companies not later than 14 days from the effective date of this agreement.

    “FGN represents and warrants that the reimbursement of FGN legal costs to the FGN designated counsel in the terms of this agreement is lawful under Nigerian laws and regulations.”

    ”In consideration of this agreement, Tidewater will pay the sum of $6million or its equivalent in whole or in part in Naira to the Federal Government of Nigeria and on behalf of the companies.

    “The payment would be made into the FGN designated accounts (as contained in Schedule 1 hereto) at the prevailing CBN exchange rate not later than 14 days from the effective date.”