A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos Southwest Nigeria on Friday ordered temporary forfeiture of the sum of $153,310,000, which a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Maduekwe, allegedly stole from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and stashed in three banks in Nigeria, to government.
Out of the allegedly stolen $153.3m, a sum of N23,446,300,000 was kept in Sterling Bank Plc, N9,080,000,000 in First Bank Plc and $5m in Access Bank Plc.
After ordering the temporary forfeiture of the monies to the Federal Government, the presiding judge, Muslim Hassan, 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 with an ex parte application seeking the temporary forfeiture of the funds.
In a nine-paragraph affidavit sworn to by the EFCC investigator, Moses Awolusi and filed in support of the ex parte application, Awolusi averred that the anti-graft agency discovered through its investigations how sometime in December 2014 Diezani invited a former Managing Director of Fidelity Bank Plc, Nnamdi Okonkwo, to her office where they hatched the plan of how a cash sum of $153,310,000 would be moved from NNPC to Okonkwo to be saved for Diezani.
According to Awolusi, Diezani instructed Okonkwo to ensure that the money was “neither credited into any known account nor captured in any transaction platforms” of Fidelity Bank. Awolusi said 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.
While $108,310,000 was subsequently changed to N23,446,300,000 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 ED, Lawal, had converted the $40m kept with him to N9,080,000,000. Awolusi 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.
After hearing him, 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.
I have been reporting on latest news from Nigeria for almost 10 years now. I report on every possible news area I come across, but always ensure my reports are compiled with dignity and fact to uphold my personal values and duty as a journalist
Posted: at 6-01-2017 08:00 PM (7 years ago) | Addicted Hero
chukkychukky at 6-01-2017 08:59 PM (7 years ago) (m)
choi
Joramentity aka chukkychukky
Posted: at 6-01-2017 08:59 PM (7 years ago) | Gistmaniac
honestly...sum so called ple re wicked and heartless...$153.3millon dollars.haba that alone can feed a generation,I keep wondering how some folks gain entrance into some key positions of a nation nd the next tin dey can tink of is to steal and steal till dey empty the treasury....what a wasted nd wicked generation she needs to be jailed
Posted: at 6-01-2017 09:37 PM (7 years ago) | Upcoming
Abeg mk una nv shout oooh if pikkin thief such money and the Papa wey show am d way how much u feel say e don thief, na small we hear we dey shout. Naija politicians na demon in human form.
Posted: at 6-01-2017 10:25 PM (7 years ago) | Newbie
₦48,599,270,000.00 WOW FORTY-EIGHT BILLION, FIVE HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE MILLION, TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY THOUSAND NAIRA FOR JUST ONE CITIZEN OUT OF A POPULATION OF 173 MILLION. THIS IS THE HEIGHT OF GREED. NOT EVEN SATAN WAS THIS GREEDY, AND THIS WOMAN STILL GO TO CHURCH AND SING LOUDEST IN CHURCH AND APPEAR SHE CAN'T KILL A FLY. I LEAVE JUDGEMENT TO GOD.
Posted: at 7-01-2017 12:38 AM (7 years ago) | Gistmaniac
What did she use the money for? let me guess, stash it under the ground, or maybe built many fancy mansion, bought Jet, organised colorful occasions in luxurious hotels, bought houses in dubai, Uk and America.
The money that could have gone to improving our technology or salary or education or agriculture, used our scientist to make more factories and diversify quickly, encourage education to university, create incentives to plan, organise and predict the path for the economy.
Posted: at 7-01-2017 11:23 AM (7 years ago) | Gistmaniac
We cooked and done I this impoverished nation. I can't eat this alone ! Just imagine the volume in question here .What's wrong with ppl ,Nigeria is this rich and its citizen can't eat nutritious food at least once in a daily meal .I'm dumbfounded! This bitch should be poke with furnace rod
Spare me
Posted: at 8-01-2017 12:46 AM (7 years ago) | Gistmaniac