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Tag: EFCC

  • Atuche’s counsel dismisses alleged threat to life of EFCC witness

    Atuche’s counsel dismisses alleged threat to life of EFCC witness

    Lawyers to a former Bank PHB boss, Francis Atuche, on Thursday dismissed allegation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission that one of its witnesses received threats to his life.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Atuche, the bank’s former Managing Director, is being prosecuted before Justice Lateefat Okunnu of a Lagos High Court in Ikeja.

    He was charged to court alongside his wife, Elizabeth and a former Chief Financial Officer of the bank, Ugo Anyanwu, for alleged stealing.

    The commission alleged that they stole over N25.7 billion belonging to Bank PHB (now KeyStone Bank) between Nov. 2007 and April 2008.

    During Thursday’s proceedings, EFCC counsel, Mr Adebowale Kamoru, informed the court that the witness, Mr Bolaji Ogunsola, had sent an e-mail to the commission alleging that his life was being threatened.

    Ogunsola, a former managing director of Mortgages PHB Ltd, a subsidiary of Bank PHB, had on Sept. 26 testified against the defendants.

    Kamoru said the witness had gone into hiding following the alleged threat, stressing that all efforts by the EFCC to convince him to appear before the court had proved futile.

    He said: “The appropriate law enforcement agencies have been informed of the development.

    “Necessary steps are being taken to ensure that adequate security is put in place throughout the period he will appear before the court on this matter”.

    Kamoru said the witness would continue his testimony when the security arrangement was in place and therefore, sought an adjournment.

    Responding, counsel to the Atuches, Chief Anthony Idigbe (SAN), said the allegation was baseless, noting that it was aimed at portraying the defendants in bad light before the court.

    He said:”I am completely shocked by the comments of prosecution counsel.

    “In the e-mail, the witness did not indicate where and on whom those threats might have come from.

    “But having expressed it in open court, there is an inference perhaps that the defendants are responsible for the alleged threat”.

    Idigbe said 15 witnesses had already testified before the court on behalf of the prosecution, stressing that none of them had made such allegations against the defendants.

    He, therefore, urged the court to order police protection for Ogunsola, so that he could appear for his cross-examination.

    Counsel to Anyanwu, Mr Silva Ogwemoh, also condemned the allegation against the defendants.

    Ogwemoh said he was shown a half-torn paper by the EFCC counsel, which was the purported e-mail received by the witness.

    He said:” We have shown that we are prepared to conduct our defence. Nobody has been threatened and we will not do so for any reason.

    “We are indeed taken aback and we are very sad with this development”.

    NAN reports that the matter was adjourned to Oct. 9 for continuation of trial. (NAN)

  • Prepaid credit cards used for money laundering, CBN, EFCC, others allege

    Prepaid credit cards used for money laundering, CBN, EFCC, others allege

    Prepaid credit cards are being deployed in borders for money laundering, the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF), has said.

    The NeFF, comprising the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and commercial banks, spoke in Lagos.

    The laundered money is often used for terrorist financing. The planning, logistics and acquisition of objects for terrorist actions often require cross-border transfer of funds to the country of destination.

    Digital Encode Limited, NeFF partner, said money laundering is an intentionally-committed crime that signifies the conversion and transfer of assets of an illicit origin. The objective of this action consists of disguising the true origin, location, nature, disposition, movements and transfer of assets acquired from illegal activities.

    Participation, support or facilitation of illegal activities, such as transfer of money of illicit origin to several bank accounts and afterwards their conversion into legal financial products, are regarded also as money laundering actions.

    NeFF said: “Direct importing of cash will be avoided for the reason of strict border control; more sophisticated techniques will rather be applied for quick and mostly complex transfer of funds through existing legal and illegal transfer systems and financial instruments.”

    The money laundering techniques involving direct use of electronic payment systems is often linked to terrorism financing and it is used only as a transporting instrument in one of the three phases of the money laundering cycle.

    “Money wire transfers can be characterised as the easiest transfer method within the money laundering activities. Transfers are financial transactions by which values are transported from the payer to the payee electronically over telecommunication networks,” it said.

    Chief Technical Officer, Digital Encode Seyi Akindeinde said the laundered fund is detrimental to economies of nations, including Nigeria.

    He said prepaid card services have a unique ’domino effect, which brings the unbanked into the formal financial system, but it has to be guided against being hijacked by money launderers because of its simplicity in usage.

    “The expansion of e-payment platforms is an exciting opportunity to reduce the cash economy, making the market safe while simultaneously improving the lives of the poor. We insist that it is only through a careful analysis of the actual risks posed that appropriate proportionate regulation and controls can be developed,” he said.

    Other features that make prepaid cards vulnerable to money laundering include anonymity, elusiveness (untraceable transactions), rapidity and lack of oversight.

    He however, explained that even in the worst-case scenario where a mobile customer is not registered, transactions are less anonymous than with cash, since they can be linked to a unique mobile number and since transactions (sender’s mobile number, amount, receiver’s mobile number, date) are recorded and traceable. This differs from cash where there is neither a unique identifier for the user nor a recorded trace of the payment.

    He said whilst cash transactions are untraceable, mobile money transactions are clearly traceable in the system of mobile operators as part of usual business practice.  For instance, telephone number (sending and receiving), time and the amount of the transaction are known to the mobile operator.

    According to him, over a distance, the electronic character of mobile technology can make transactions much more rapid and effortless than cash. Rapidity is therefore a bigger risk factor for mobile money services than for cash. In the case where there are no automated internal controls, this can provide efficient means for criminals to launder money.

    He added that while the cash economy lacks oversight, a mobile operator offering mobile money services is regulated. He explained that where laundered money is loaded onto a prepaid debit card that is given to another individual for use, it could look very much like any normal transaction with no observable loss to the card issuer. Therefore, prepaid cards he explained are an example of a payment method that provides a potentially attractive vehicle for enabling money laundering transactions.

    According to him, payment providers and others in the card industry have reacted by putting restrictions on load limits and requiring cardholder identification to help eliminate the potential for using prepaid cards in money laundering.

  • N43.4m scam: EFCC closes case against ex-minister

    N43.4m scam: EFCC closes case against ex-minister

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Monday at a Federal High Court, Abuja, closed its submission in a N43.4 million money laundering allegation against ex-minister of Works and Housing, Hassan Lawal.

    The counsel to the EFCC, Mr. Shittu Wahab, had told the court that the accused used Adesanya Adewale, an ex-staff of a bank to launder the money.

    He explained that the action was a contravention of the Money Laundering Act 2004.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the anti-graft body had charged the ex-minister and Adewole for illegally moving monies that were not traceable to any sources.

    The counsel said that all the prosecution witnessed had testified that the deposits were made in three transactions of N3 million, N4 million and N8.9 million at different times.

    Wahab further submitted that one of the witnesses had shown to the court how the ex-minister conspired with Adewole to effect other transactions of N15 million and N12.5 million.

    The counsel had argued that the transactions were made to be concealed from the public.

    Counsel to Lawal, Mr. Ibrahim Ishiaku (SAN), had insisted that the deposits were genuine transactions made by his client as payment for a housing loan procured from the bank.

     

  • ‘EFCC cannot do the work of the courts’

    ‘EFCC cannot do the work of the courts’

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has debunked claims that it has not made meaningful progress, stressing that the courts have the final say in convictions in cases of corruption.

    EFCC’s Secretary, Mr. Emmanuel Akomaye, made the declaration in Abuja on Sunday when he spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria.

    He said that the public misconception was based on the premise that once a person was alleged to have stolen money the person should be convicted immediately.

    “Between 2003 and now that the EFCC was established and started operating, we have had not less than 500 convictions of persons in various offences of money laundering, corruption, advance fee fraud, bank fraud, pipeline vandalism, or illegal oil bunkering.

    “There was no such record before then. We always look at today, and again, issues of justice are not things that you command to happen, you must follow the process.

    “And we should also remember that some few years back, particularly during the military regime, those attempts at instilling disciplines in ways other than through the rule of law became unsustainable, so we must realise that we must do things that we can sustain them over time.

    “We are aware that the public wants results now. That is the public perception. They hear that somebody is alleged to have stolen money they believe that you should just take him straight to the court and have him convicted. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t happen like that.

    “There is a process in all these, ‘’ Akomaye said.

    He told NAN that the commission had incurred damages from unconstitutional detention of persons alleged to have stolen funds.

     

  • EFCC arrests man trying to smuggle out N1.1b

    EFCC arrests man trying to smuggle out N1.1b

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Friday confirmed the arrest of a 24-year old suspect, Abubakar Tijani Sheriff, at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos for trying to smuggle out $7million(N1, 120,000billion).

    The arrested bulk currency smuggler, who was arrested on Thursday, was attempting to take the $7million, suspected to be for money laundering purpose to Dubai on behalf of 20 Nigerians whom he has not named.

    It was however learnt that the suspect has named one of those who sent him on errand after undergoing interrogation on Friday.

    A statement by the Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said the suspect was caught at the point of boarding.

    The statement said: “The 24-year-old was arrested at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos en route Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He was apprehended at the point of boarding the plane by operatives of the Commission.

    “When he was arrested, he declared that he had a total sum of $4.5million on him but thorough screening and search showed that he was actually carrying $7,049,444 (Seven million, Forty Nine Thousand, Four Hundred and Forty Four United States Dollars).

    “He confessed that he was a courier for 20 individuals who hired him to courier the money for them to Dubai.

    “Investigations by the EFCC showed that Sheriff is a regular traveller and one of several couriers of illegal cash suspected to be proceeds of crime. His claims in respect of his accomplices are still being investigated by the Commission.

    “Travellers leaving the country are statutorily required to declare cash in excess of $10,000. However, it is not sufficient to declare excess cash, under the provisions of the Money Laundering Act, the onus is on the person making the declaration to explain the source of the excess cash and the reason for the export.

    “Experience has shown that bulk cash smuggling, the world over, is usually associated with proceeds of crime as legitimately earned funds are usually processed through the banking system.

    “Our experience in the last few years indicates an emerging trend of bulk cash smuggling to Europe, Middle East and North America with the attendant consequence for capital flight.

    “Some Nigerian citizens are routinely arrested at airports in Europe and North American for currency smuggling though no such arrests have been recorded in the Middle East. But in all cases, the money is lost as they are never repatriated back to the country.”

     

  • Judges with ‘fat accounts’

    Judges with ‘fat accounts’

    EFCC should be careful the way it is handling the matter

    Many Nigerians hold the view that many of the judges in the country are corrupt. Indeed, a few years ago, a lawyer openly accused some Justices of the Supreme Court of corruption. This public perception is also applicable to some judges at the Court of Appeal and the High Courts. So, the recent news report that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is closing in on five judges who allegedly have ‘fat bank accounts’ may ordinarily elicit, ‘we have always said so’ from commentators. Yet, we worry that an investigation preceded by such an unnecessary public show may have unintended consequences.

    Criminal investigations should be covert, to catch the culprits unawares and ensure that necessary evidence is not destroyed. Again, when media trial prefaces an investigation and trial in accordance with our laws, it is possible that suspects, who turn out to be innocent, may have lost their reputation for no just cause. Unfortunately in the current instance, with the investigation leaked to the press, the advantage of a covert operation is lost, and if not properly handled, the integrity of the process may also be affected. Indeed, there is the possibility that dubious officials of the agency and conmen may have been gifted an opportunity to descend on the judiciary for blackmail and extortion.

    The EFCC apparently also did not take into consideration the effect that indiscriminate corruption tar will have on the already besmirched integrity and public perception of the judiciary. Without the names of the judges concerned made public, the public perception will be that it could be any of the judges. It also brings to public enquiry, questions as to what standards the EFCC used to determine judges with ‘fat account’. Again, questions may arise whether a similar standard is being applied to every other public officer, just because of this unnecessary public show.

    For the purposes of clarity, we, like most Nigerians believe that there is enormous corruption in the judiciary. Indeed, when a judge with no other means of livelihood has millions of unaccountable sums of money in his account, such a judge may have rightly raised a prima facie case of corruption against him or herself. Also, because of the sensitive nature of the judiciary with respect to the wellbeing of the society, judges more than any group of persons, must be persons clearly above reproach in their conduct. So it may be necessary that a tab is kept on those who show the proclivity for corrupt enrichment in the judiciary, in other to have a better society.

    But in doing that, circumspection must be the rule. To do otherwise is to expose the entire judiciary to unnecessary pressure. Indeed, as things are, the upright judges will be worried that while they have not corruptly enriched themselves, they have not escaped the fate of those who are corrupt. This is because the greatest asset of a judge is his or her integrity. Where that is taken away, what is left is a hollow, instead of a hallow chamber of justice. In practice, when a judge’s integrity is correctly questioned in his conduct of a matter before him, such judges quickly hands off such matters, to restore the sanctity of a law court.

    A wholesome destruction of group integrity we think may happen to the judiciary, unless the EFCC quickly restores the integrity of the innocent, by naming the judges involved in the alleged corruption. The EFCC may also have to find out who and why the information was leaked to the press, for internal discipline. Unless of course our political leadership has resorted to the era of using the EFCC to try perceived opponents through the media, even when no result will be achieved thereafter. On this point, we hope that the EFCC will not allow itself to be used by the executive to intimidate the judiciary or browbeat judicial officers to engage in unconscionable conducts in the name of fighting corruption.

    While the law enforcement agencies should keep an eye on the judiciary, like every other arm of government, the judiciary must also fight corruption among its members. The constitution amply gives the National Judicial Council (NJC) the constitutional prerogative to discipline those, who through corruption bring the entire system to disrepute. The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and the general public must also take up the challenge to expose corrupt judges, to ensure justice for such judges. The judiciary can establish secure opportunities for whistle blowers to help sanctify the system. In our view, all necessary steps must be taken to return integrity to the judiciary that is rightly referred to as the ‘last hope of the common man’.

  • Remembering Halliburton, etc.

    Remembering Halliburton, etc.

    •When will Nigeria follow the lead of the Western countries and bring convicts culprits?

     

    It is well known that the United States and Germany are the parent nations of the companies involved in the Halliburton and Siemens bribery scandals that rocked the nation for some time. What is instructive, however, is the attitude of the two countries to the scandals, compared to Nigeria’s.

    The infamous Halliburton/KBR scandal was a classic example. About $180m was exchanged for a contract to build the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Plant, while Siemens was involved in £17.6m scandal. The interesting point is that while Nigeria failed to prosecute people involved in the scandals, foreigners involved in the Halliburton scam were convicted and fined heavily in both the US and UK. Perhaps, it was in order to please the agitated public on this incidence of “justice at a distance and not at home” that the late President Umaru Yar’Adua government set up an inter-agency panel to investigate the scandals and bring the culprits to book. But the panel, as usual, produced no result as conspiracy and antics among government officials, led by the then Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa (SAN) infuriated the Justice Abubakar Umar of Abuja High court who struck out the case being brought up, following the failure of the prosecution to arraign the three suspects for the one year that the trial lasted.

    High level political influence has been identified as a factor for the poor handling of court trials in Nigeria. For instance, the EFCC had also filed charges against former Vice – President of the US and Halliburton CEO, Mr Dick Cheney while, in December, 2010, the commission agreed to drop the charges because the government reported that Halliburton had agreed to pay $250m in fines.

    While Nigeria was still unable to do something about any of these scandals, the United States Department of Justice on January 18 announced that a Japanese construction firm, Marubeni Corporation, agreed to pay a $54.6 million criminal penalty for allegedly bringing officials of the Nigerian government to facilitate the award of the $6 billion Liquefied Natural Gas contract in Bonny, Nigeria, to a multinational consortium, TSKJ. Note that the scheme had involved payment of bribes to Nigerian government officials between 1995 and 2004, in violation of the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

    Similarly, two Britons and an American were sentenced in Texas for conspiring to channel the $180m bribes to Nigerian politicians and officials. Yet, there are still others: a Briton, Jeffrey Tesler, a London lawyer, was sentenced after pleading guilty about his role in the bribery. Tesler, 63, bagged 21 months in federal prison, followed by two years of supervised release for delivering $132m in bribes for KBR and partners. He also forfeited $149m as part of his plea deal. Also, an American executive, Jack Stanley, 69, said to be the mastermind behind KBR’s Nigeria bribery scheme, was sentenced to 30 months in prison and three years on probation, following his release on bail for $100,000.

    Now the point: while the United States, Germany and UK came hard on the trials of their nationals involved in the scandals after investigation, their Nigerian partners have enjoyed immunity from prosecution by their government, just like in many other crimes. This has prompted suggestions that the National Assembly should amend the laws that established the anti-graft agencies to make them absolutely independent of manipulation by the executive. We support this call.

    But the bottom line for now is: we have seen the punishments given to people involved in Halliburton and Siemens’ scandals in their countries; when shall we see the Nigerian counterparts of the foreigners involved in these scandals punished in their own country, Nigeria?

     

  • How banker ‘stole N23 b’ as loans to firms, by EFCC

    How banker ‘stole N23 b’ as loans to firms, by EFCC

    A Lagos State High Court, Ikeja, yesterday heard how a former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Bank PHB Plc, Mr Ugo Anyanwu, authorised the transfer of N23billion of depositors’ funds to some accounts without their owners’ approval.

    An Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) investigator, Mr David Ikpe, said the beneficiaries of the transferred sums did not follow the due banking process of applying for a loan.

    Anyanwu is standing trial before Justice Lateefah Okunnu, along with a former Managing Director of BankPHB, Mr Francis Atuche and his wife, Elizabeth.
    The EFCC brought a 27-count charge bothering on alleged conspiracy to commit felony and stealing against them. It said they allegedly stole the bank’s N25.7 billion between November 2007 and April 2008. They denied the charges.

    According to the agency, the three conspired with one another to steal from the bank various sums of money, which were fraudulently described as loans to various companies, including Future View Securities, Extra Oil Limited, Resolution Trust and Investment Limited, Petosan Oil and Gas and Tradjek Nigeria Limited.

    Testifying at the trial yesterday, Ikpe said Anyanwu gave the instructions to other bank officials to make the transfers, using his position as CFO, adding that the transactions were “not normal.”

    His investigations, he said, revealed that some officers who were asked to make the transfers “raised eyebrows.”  He said a bank official, Ifetayo Obi, complained that “she never had the customer’s instruction to transfer these funds.”

    The witness said an official asked to make a transfer had written on the instruction document: ‘Customer Instruction Outstanding.’ “The conceptualisation and utility of the transfers were not normal. The beneficial owners ought to have applied and approval given. It was the impunity that characterised the banking sector in the past which brought us here,” Ikpe said.

    According to him, the owner of one of the companies to which funds were transferred, Peter Ololo, expressed “shock” when his name was published as being indebted to Bank PHB.

    “Ololo said he did not authorise the transfers. The transfers were made without the knowledge of the owner of the account,” the witness said, adding that Ololo was confronted as to why the accounts were debited.

    Ikpe, however, admitted that no particular unit of shares was traced to Anyanwu’s account, and that the phone numbers and signatures on the transfer documents were not all of defendant’s.

    He also said Anyanwu was not on the committee charged with granting loans, but insisted: “As the Chief Financial Officer, his role in authorising the payments is clear.”
    “The third defendant (Anyanwu) authorised the transfer of the N23billion,” he said. “That the third defendant ordered this transfer is not in doubt. I did not see these transactions as done in the normal course of banking transaction. I disagree that it was a normal transaction.”

    Ikpe also admitted that he did not find any query in respect of the transfers Anyanwu authorised. EFCC in the charge said the defendants allegedly converted N25.7 billion to their personal use to acquire hundreds of millions of units of shares, including 140,625,000 units of Bank PHB shares on behalf of Guesstrade Services.

    They also allegedly used over N1 billion, fraudulently described as a loan from the bank and converted it to their own personal use by using it to buy 112,500,000 units of BankPHB shares on behalf of Sebtron Trading.

    Other companies involved in the alleged multi-billion naira fraud are: Montrax Investico, Claremount Asset Management Limited, Arabian Probity Management, Clearville Business Support, Commercial Trading and Services Limited, Trenton Trade Limited, Stamford Global Concept Limited, Felimon Enterprises, Ghzali Yakubu Investment Limited and AFCO Associates Limited.

    Atuche, Elizabeth and Anyanwu pleaded not guilty to all the counts.

  • Why did it take EFCC so long?

    Why did it take EFCC so long?

    Mr Chibuike Achigbu, the intriguing man who some reports described as an oil magnate, was on Saturday granted administrative bail by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    The businessman had launched himself into the thick of the controversy swirling around the $15 million alleged to have been offered as bribe to Mallam Nuhu Ribadu by the former Delta State governor, Chief James Ibori. In late August, Achigbu had gone to court claiming ownership of the money, which he said was not a bribe but money pooled together by influential businessmen as donation to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2007 elections.

    He named Senator Andy Uba as a witness and hoped the legislator would corroborate his account of the transaction, which he said was conducted in the senator’s Abuja residence. While Uba admitted knowledge of the transaction, he balked at going into details, saying he knew nothing beyond the fact that his residence was used merely as venue of the transaction.

    But for reasons he would not disclose, Achigbu withdrew the case from court as intriguingly as he filed it. But by then it was too late. The cat had been let out of the murky bag. For soon after, Festus Keyamo, a legal practitioner, applied to court for an order through Direct Criminal Complaint procedure to compel the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to investigate all those involved in the bribery saga. An Abuja Chief Magistrate Court gave the order and asked the IGP to report back on September 26.

    All these manoeuvres, of course, have nothing to do with the main case itself which is still before a Federal High Court in Abuja where the federal government is battling to legitimise its queer status as receiver of alleged stolen money, and Delta State is latching on to the allegation made by the original beneficiary, Ribadu, to claim ownership.

    Along the line, however, the EFCC on Thursday waded into the legal fracas and arrested Achigbu as part of the agency’s investigation of the bribery saga. It is not known whether they will pick up Uba, also as part of the investigation. Hardball, readers will recall, had repeatedly suggested the case was a very simple open and close one.

    All the authorities needed to do, he argued, was haul all the people mentioned in the transaction to court, particularly Ribadu and the man he sent to collect the money, Mr Ibrahim Lamorde, who happens to be the current EFCC chairman. Surely they couldn’t have become so amnesiac as not to remember how the exchange was done and the discussions that led to it. Why complicate a clear case, a puzzled Hardball queried?

    It has taken EFCC an awful long time to wade into a matter it ought on its own to have tackled effortlessly and even routinely. But better late than never. The public must indeed hope that the agency will really get to the bottom of the controversy.

    After all, Lamorde is available to be interrogated by the agency’s operatives, and Ribadu is still alive and kicking. It must also puzzle everyone that it had to take a court order to compel the police to live up to their responsibility.

    It is expected they will buckle down to it. However, like the EFCC, the police should have taken a natural interest in wading eagerly into a matter that is clearly within their purview. If the country has come to such a pass that outsiders and the courts now think for public officials, well, so be it. Think for them we will; and as frequently as are required to snap them out of their self-imposed paralysis.

  • EFCC moves against two CJs

    EFCC moves against two CJs

    FIVE judges, two of them State Chief Judges, may have fallen foul of the law against corruption.
    They   are now under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly keeping fat accounts.
     The anti-graft commission has already obtained the statements of accounts of the affected judges and how funds were wired into their accounts.
    It was gathered yesterday that they may be arrested for questioning.
     In addition to the chief judges, there are three judges of the Federal High Court.
    A source familiar with the matter said: “This investigation has to do with alleged financial crimes committed by the judges, especially issues bordering on suspicious lodgements into their accounts.
    “These slush funds were paid over time into their various accounts by litigants and their lobbyists to allegedly influence judgments.
    “We have obtained the statements of accounts of the affected judges and our investigation teams have been analyzing ‘curious’ lodgements into the accounts.
    ‘So far, there are appreciable traces of suspicious lodgements in the accounts of these judges. We have requested the banks for further details of the transfer of these funds.”
    Asked if the investigation was at the instance of the National Judicial Council (NJC), the source responded: “We are talking of financial crimes, not judicial matters, which are within the jurisdiction of the EFCC.
    “Whatever our findings are the law will take its course. We are likely to arrest the affected judges soon for interrogation.”
    The names of the judges were not disclosed.
    Continuing, the source said: “We do not want to start revealing their identities in order not to jeopardize the on-going investigation. But we are closing in on them.”
    It was learnt that immediately the judges are arrested, they might be suspended by the NJC pending the conclusion of their trial.
    And in the event that they are found guilty, the NJC will be expected to invoke Section 292 (1) of the 1999 Constitution.
    The section says: “A judicial officer shall not be removed from his office or appointment before his age of retirement except in the following circumstances- (a) in the case of (i) Chief Justice of Nigeria, President of the Court of Appeal, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Chief Judge of the High Court of the Federal  Capital Territory, Abuja, Grand Kadi of the Sharia Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and President, Customary Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja by the President acting on an address supported by two-thirds majority of the Senate.
    (ii) Chief Judge of a State, Grand Kadi of a Sharia Court of Appeal or President of a Customary Court of Appeal of a state, by the Governor acting on an address supported by two-thirds majority of the House of Assembly of the state, praying that he be so removed for his inability to discharg the functions of his office or appointment (whether arising from infirmity of mind or of body) or for misconduct or contravention of the Code of Conduct.
    “(b) in any case, other than those to which paragraph (a) of this subsection applies, by the President or, as the case may be, the Governor acting on the recommendation of the National Judicial Council that the judicial officer be so removed for his inability to discharge the functions of his office or appointment (whether arising from infirmity of mind or of body) or for misconduct or contravention of the Code of Conduct.”