The Nation Newspaper

Tag: National Intelligence Agency (NIA)

  • Alleged N13b fraud: EFCC declares ex-NIA boss, wife wanted

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has declared a former Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Amb.  Ayodele Oke and his wife, Folasade, wanted in connection with alleged N13 billion fraud.

    The cash had to do with $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 recovered by the anti-graft agency from an apartment on Osborne Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, in April 2017.

    But a family source said Oke, who has been away for medical trip abroad, had not been served the charges against him.

    He said Oke is not on the run but attending to his fragile health.

    A statement by the Acting Head of Media and Publicity of the commission, Mr. Tony Orilade, said the couple were declared wanted after they failed to answer fraud charges filed against them.

    The statement reads: “Justice Chukwujeku Aneke of a Federal High Court Lagos, had on February 7, 2019 issued an arrest warrant on them, consequent upon an oral application by counsel for the EFCC, Rotimi Oyedepo.

    “Oke and his wife are wanted in connection with the $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 cash recovered by the EFCC from an apartment at Osborne Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, in April 2017.

    “They are facing a four-count charge bordering on money laundering offence to the tune of N13 billion.”

    One of the counts reads: “That you, Amb. Ayodele Oke and Mrs. Folasade Ayodele Oke between 25th day of August 2015 and 2nd day of September 2015 in Lagos, with in the jurisdiction of this court directly converted $160,777,136.85 property of the Federal Government of Nigeria to your own use which sum you reasonably ought to have known formed part of proceeds of an unlawful act to wit: criminal breach of trust and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 15 (2) (d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) (Amendment) Act 2012 and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act”.

    A top source, who spoke in confidence with our correspondent, said:  “Twice, we have been to court but he refused to appear to answer the charges against him. We trailed him to NIA quarters but we avoided barging into the premises.

    “But later, the trail signal disappeared which indicated that he had gone underground.

    “We explained our dilemma to the court and it gave us the go-ahead to look for him.”

    Responding to a question, the source added: “What we have done now is to watch-list him. Wherever he is, whoever sees him at airport, seaport and land borders, should report to any security agency.

    “ At this stage, what we need to do is to serve him charges.”

    A family source, however, said: “As at today, Oke and his wife have not been served any charges. They only arraigned him after he has gone abroad for treatment. Before he left the country, there was no communication from the anti-graft agency.

    “How can the EFCC declare the ex-NIA boss wanted after he had appeared before them for questioning? Once he is through with his medical care, Oke and his wife will report to the EFCC accordingly.”

  • NIA DG in closed door meeting with Osinbajo

    NIA DG in closed door meeting with Osinbajo

    After few minutes of dodging journalists and rushing out of the Villa, the Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ambassador Ayo Oke, returned to the seat of power.

    He is presently in a closed door meeting with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in his office.

    Before arriving the Villa the second time, journalists were asked to leave the lobby leading to the Vice President’s office.

    The meeting still in progress at the time of filing this report.

     

  • Buhari suspends SGF, DG NIA

    Buhari suspends SGF, DG NIA

    President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered an investigation into the allegations of violations of law and due process made against the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr David Babachir Lawal, in the award of contracts under the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE).

    The President has also directed the suspension of the SGF from office pending the outcome of the investigations.

    This was contained in a statement issued on Wednesday by the Special Adviser on media and publicity, Femi Adesina.

    According to the statement, the President has also ordered a full scale investigation into the discovery of large amounts of foreign and local currencies by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in a residential apartment at Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, over which the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has made a claim.

    It reads “The investigation is also to enquire into the circumstances in which the NIA came into possession of the funds, how and by whose or which authority the funds were made available to the NIA, and to establish whether or not there has been a breach of the law or security procedure in obtaining custody and use of the funds.”

    The President has also directed the suspension of the Director General of the NIA, Ambassador Ayo Oke, pending the outcome of the investigation.

    A three-man Committee comprising the Hon. Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, and the National Security Adviser, headed by the Vice President, is to conduct both investigations.

    The Committee is to submit its report to the President within 14 days.

    “The most senior Permanent Secretary in the SGF’s office, and the most senior officer in the NIA, are to act, respectively, during the period of investigation,” it stated

     

  • Five Osborne Towers VIP tenants under EFCC probe

    Five Osborne Towers VIP tenants under EFCC probe

    More facts emerged at the weekend on the cash haul at Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos.

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was on the trail of some high-profile tenants when it found the $43.4 million, £27,000 and N23 million at House 6, Apartment 7B, it was learnt.

    Four of the tenants have been quizzed; a petition is pending against the fifth.

    The building, it was learnt, had been under surveillance because of the tenants.

    Sources said a whistle-blower alerted the EFCC about the apartment in which the huge cash was recovered.

    When the EFCC moved in, a source said, it was unaware that the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) had a Safe Apartment there.

    The high-profile tenants live in the building.

    The anti-graft agency, according to the sources, had been trying to identify the tenants’ assets, including choice apartments in the towers.

    The whistle-blower, it was learnt, might have had knowledge of the EFCC’s discreet investigation and decided to help.

    But, as it turned out, the apartment does not belong to any of the tenants.

    One of them was said to have sold his stake in the towers.

    A source said: “As at the time of the EFCC’s operation on Wednesday, about five high-profile tenants, who are either being investigated or on the radar of the commission, were suspected to be living or having apartments there.

    “Some of the tenants have been quizzed and others are undergoing investigation. Only one of them has an outstanding petition still being probed by EFCC detectives.”

    “Among them are two former governors, a director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and two prominent lawyers.

    “So, when the whistle-blower raised the red flag, the EFCC was quick to move in without knowing that the 7B apartment is a safe house of the NIA.

    “There was excitement in the Lagos Zonal office of the EFCC about a breakthrough. This was why the operation started between 10am and 11am,” the source said.

    He said EFCC was hesitant to cooperate with the NIA.

    A government official, who pleaded not to be named because of “the sensitivity” of the matter, spoke last night in what transpired between EFCC and NIA.

    He said the EFCC did not set out to ridicule or embarrass the NIA. “It is unfortunate that this is the second time this type of incident is happening between the two agencies,” he said, adding:

    “There was a case of some cash released for contingency assignment by presidential fiat through the NIA account. The release was based on the directive of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.

    “When the EFCC began the investigation of some Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs), it traced the movement of the cash to NIA account. Instead of seeking explanation from the Director-General of NIA, Ambassador Ayo Oke, the EFCC wrote directly to the Central Bank of Nigeria( CBN) to demand the details of the transactions on the said account.

    “In fact, the documents obtained from CBN included other sensitive operations and overhead. The NIA took exception to it. When President Muhammadu Buhari intervened, he saw all the records that neither NIA DG nor any staff benefited from the said funds.

    “NIA actually transferred the whole money as directed by the ex-President to another dedicated account. Subsequent EFCC investigation did not indict NIA. As for Wednesday’s operation, it was true that DG of NIA rushed to the Acting chairman of EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, who promised to intervene. The NIA boss only asked EFCC to retrieve the cash without making a public show of it in the media.

    “At the time the NIA got in touch with EFCC, the operation was already midway and strategy wise, the EFCC chairman felt it would convey a different impression because a crowd had already gathered in and around the towers.”

    Responding to a question, the source added: “The operation was based on the clues from the whistle-blower. The commission acted on intelligence. No one gave EFCC a list of safe houses of NIA. And the cash was also considered huge for NIA’s covert operations.”

    According to the source, the EFCC secured clearance from a senior intelligence officer before continuing its operation after entreaties from the NIA.

    ”I think there was communication gap somewhere and lack of synergy between the security and intelligence agencies,” he said, adding:

    “This incident will serve as a lesson for all the agencies to cooperate and share intelligence.”

    Nigerians have continued to raise questions about the ownership of the mystery cash, which the NIA has claimed.

    Among the questions is that if the money was meant for operations, why has it not been spent in two years? Was there any need for it, considering how long it has stayed unspent?

    Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has said the money belongs to the state. If it is not returned in seven days, said the governor, the state will launch a legal battle to recover it.

    He said it was the proceed of the state’s gas turbine sold by the Rotimi Amaechi administration.

    Amaechi denied the claim, saying he had nothing to do with the money. He challenged Wike to prove the allegation.

    About N16billion has been recovered by the EFCC in the last few days in Lagos.

    About N12,360,814,000 and N4billion were traced to private accounts.

    On December 22, last year, the Federal Government launched the whistle blowing policy to expose fraud and other related crimes in public and private sectors.

    The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, said: “If there is a voluntary return of stolen or concealed public funds or assets on the account of the information provided, the whistle blower may be entitled to anywhere between 2.5 per cent (minimum) and 5.0 per cent (maximum) of the total amount recovered.”

  • Falana advises govt to handle $43.4m cash haul with care

    Falana advises govt to handle $43.4m cash haul with care

    ACTIVIST lawyer Femi Falana yesterday expressed reservations over the controversies trailing the cash found in a residential apartment on Osborne Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    He urged the authorities to handle the matter with transparency to avoid a repeat of what happened to the $9.3 million ferried to South Africa in a private jet in 2014.

    According to him, like the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) claimed the ownership of the $9.3 million, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has come out to claim the sum of $43 million, N22 million and £27,000 seized by the EFCC last week.

    Falana’s statement reads: “In 2014, two businessmen (an Israeli and a Nigerian) smuggled $9.3 million to South Africa from Nigeria. It was alleged that the private jet with which the fund was hauled was leased from the then President of Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor.

    “Both suspects were arrested while the fund was seized.  The additional sum of $5.7 million sent to South Africa through a bank by the duo was also seized. Although the Federal Government was not implicated in the transfer of the fund, the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) later claimed that the $15 million was meant for the purchase of arms from a firm in South Africa.

    “As the ONSA could not justify the brazen contravention of the Money Laundering Act of South Africa, the fund was confiscated on the orders of a High Court in Pretoria. When tried last year to confirm from the Attorney-General of the Federation if the forfeited sum of  $15 million had been recovered from the President Jacob Zuma regime, I was asked to direct my enquiry to the ONSA.

    “It is hoped that history is not repeating itself with respect to the embarrassing  attempt by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) to claim the sum of $43 million, N22 million and £27,000 seized by the EFCC last week from a flat at a building in Osborne Road, Ikoyi.

    “The Federal Government owes the nation a duty to handle this matter with utmost transparency and circumspection. The NIA should not be allowed to play on the collective intelligence of the Nigerian people. If the Federal Government believes the cock and bull story of the NIA, the danger is that similar hidden funds are going to be officially protected, thereby making a mockery of the whistle-blowing policy of the government.

    “We must avoid a situation whereby huge funds hidden in abandoned buildings and apartments are said to be “operational funds” kept by certain security agencies. If the EFCC had refused to seize the fund last week, the whistle-blower could have rushed to the media to accuse the Buhari administration of keeping stolen money for the 2019 general elections.

    “Apart from the NIA, the Rivers State government is also laying claim to the fund. But instead of giving the Federal Government a seven-day ultimatum to hand over the money to the Rives State government, Governor Nyesom Wike should instruct his attorney-general to file an affidavit at the Federal High Court.

    “But before doing that, he should carefully study the case of FRN v CBN (unreported) where the application of the Delta State government to claim the bribe of $15 million paid to the then EFCC chairman, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, by a former governor of the state was dismissed as the applicant was unable to prove that it owned the money.

    “On a more serious note, are Nigerians to believe that an agency of the federal government kept about $50 million in an apartment without adequate security personnel to guard the money? Why was the fund not kept in a safe in the well-fortified ONSA?  When was the National Intelligence Agency exempted from the Treasury Single Account (TSA)?

    “If the DG of NIA has just gone to brief President Buhari that the fund was collected from former President Goodluck Jonathan for a special project, why did the briefing not take place before now? Since the NIA is in charge of external security why was it necessary to execute projects in the country? How much of such fund is being kept in private homes by the NIA and other security agencies?

    “Since the whistle-blowing policy of the Federal Government commenced why has the NIA not deemed it fit to take the anti-graft agencies into confidence with respect to the fund being kept in Ikoyi for the so called covert operations?

    “Is the Federal Government not being exposed to ridicule when corrupt public officers are competing with government departments to hide millions of United States dollars in dump sites and ‘safe’ apartments? Anyway, since the Federal High Court has granted the application filed by the EFCC for an interim forfeiture of the fund, it is no longer an internal affair of the Buhari administration.  Let the National Intelligence Agency approach the court with convert proof to claim the money.”