The trial of a former governor of Plateau State, Joshua Dariye, before Justice Adebukola Banjoko of the FCT High Court sitting in Gudu, Abuja was stalled on October 20, 2016 as Dariye’s counsel, Nantok Joshua, asked for an adjournment to enable the defence produce a ruling purportedly delivered by a Kaduna State High Court, which it intended to tender and build on with its next witnesses. The ruling, according to Joshua, deals with the ecological funds, which is the crux of the case, couldn’t be tendered because the Registrar of the Kaduna State High Court was unavailable to provide it…
Author: Kunle Edun
In less than ten months of being in operation, the Ibadan Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has recovered N57,316,607.15. The Zonal Head, Mr. Akanniyene Ezinma made the disclosure today October 20, 2016 at a maiden media briefing in the Commission’s office at Iyaganku GRA, Ibadan. According to him ”the Ibadan Zonal office was established in January 2016 as an impetus to the anti corruption vision of the Federal Government and the resolve of the Acting Executive Chairman, Ibrahim Magu to extend the anti graft war to the grassroots and especially to bring the Commission closer…
The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has lauded the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for its assistance in the recovery of pension assets. The Executive Secretary of the Directorate, Mrs. Sharon Ikeazor who gave the commendation during a courtesy visit to the EFCC headquarters today in Abuja, underlined her agency’s indebtedness to the Commission for the assistance it rendered to PTAD, during the recent verification exercise. “Your officers participate in the exercise for which we are extremely grateful,” she said. She said PTAD values the collaboration between the two agencies and sough further assistance of the Commission in the recovery of pension assets held by some insurance…
The South East Zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Enugu secured a total of Fourteen (14) convictions in the last ten months and recovered over Two Hundred and Forty Four Million, Five Hundred and Eighty Seven Naira, Twenty Kobo (N244,574,587.28). The Zonal Head, Johnson Babalola disclosed this today in Enugu at a press conference to brief the media and other stakeholders on the activities of the zone since January 2016. Babalola further disclosed that Nine Hundred and Fifty Five Thousand ,Four Hundred and Sixty Five United State Dollars ($955,465 USD); Ten Thousand Euro (€10,000) and Three…
Justice Adebukola Banjoko of the FCT High Court sitting in Gudu, Abuja on Wednesday, October 19, 2016 warned parties, their agents and surrogates to stop interfering with prosecution witnesses. The judge gave the warning at the resumed trial of a former Taraba State governor, Jolly Nyame, following complaints from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) prosecution team that the defendant was interfering with its witnesses. Nyame is standing trial on a 41-count charge of money laundering, criminal breach of trust and gratification to the tune of N1.64bn. The case which had earlier been slated for hearing today could not…
A witness in the trial of Patrick Ziadeke Akpobolokemi, Major General Emmanuel Atewe, Kime Egozi and one Josephine Otuoga on 19th October, 2016 told a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos how Major General Atewe, former Commander of the Joint Military Task Force, Operation Pulo Shield, disbursed over N8.5bn from the account of the Joint Task Force, domiciled in Zenith Bank Plc. The witness, Teslim Ajuwola compliance officer with Zenith Bank made the disclosure through the account statement of the Joint Task Force, under Atewe. The instruments forwarded to the EFCC by Zenith Bank, showed the second defendant and one…
The Federal Government has called for more support from Nigerians for the efforts aimed at recovering stolen funds from persons that looted the nation’s treasury. The call was made by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday, October 18, 2016, while addressing participants at a 2-day National Conference jointly organised by the Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption, PACAC and the National Assembly. The programme with the theme, “The Role of the Legislature in the Fight against Corruption in Nigeria” offers a platform for participants to brainstorm on how to tackle corruption in the country. Declaring the conference open, Osinbajo lamented…
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on last Monday, October 17, re-arraigned a former Governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, his son, Senator Abdulaziz Nyako, and two others on a 37-count of money laundering before Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Abuja for allegedly laundering state funds to the tune N40billion. Others are: Zulkifik Abba and Abubakar Aliyu, who were joined as 3rd and 4th defendants, while the firms allegedly used in laundering the funds – Blue Opal Limited, Sebore Farms & Extension Limited, Pagoda Fortunes Limited, Tower Assets Management Limited and Crust Energy Limited were…
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Wednesday, September 21, 2016 arrested a businessman, Abdulhafiz Umar Barau, for allegedly obtaining money by false pretence to the tune of N12,150,000 (Twelve Million One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira). The complainant, Dusus Yyang Bot, allegedly supplied 90,000(Ninety Thousand) litres of Automobile Gas Oil (AGO) worth N12,150,000 to the suspect sometime in January this year. The 38-year-old suspect had assured the complainant that he would pay the agreed sum of money after the product was delivered to him. However, the complainant alleged that the suspect could not be reached any more after…
The Lagos State High Court presided over by Justice Kudirat Jose on 21 September convicted and sentenced one Michael Ugochukwu to five years imprisonment on a one count charge of stealing to the tune of N10,500,000 (Ten Million, Five Hundred Thousand Naira Only) property of Patrick Ekeh. The convict was arraigned by the EFCC in early 2014 following investigation of a petition by one Patrick Ekeh who alleged that he imported a total of twenty eight vehicles for the convict from the United States of America sometime in January 2010 through the Lagos port. It was later discovered in April…
The former governor of Adamawa State, James Bala Ngilari, has been charged and remanded in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). This was the ruling of Justice Nathan Musa of High Court of Adamawa state, which sat in Yola on September 21. The EFCC had charged Ngilari for violation of procurement laws in the award of contract of one hundred and sixty-seven million naira to one El-Yadi Motors Limited for supply of twenty-five units of operational vehicles (Toyota Corolla). The Commission had instituted a nineteen count-charge against Ngilari, his former secretary to the government, Ibrahim Andrew Welye…
Pluto Property and Investment Company Ltd, Seagate Property Development and Investment Company Ltd, Trans Ocean Property and Investment Company Ltd, and Avalon Global Property Development Company Ltd, allegedly linked to Dame Patience Jonathan, wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan in a $15million money laundering case today pleaded guilty before Justice Babs Kuewumi of the Federal High Court, Lagos. But Waripamo-Owei Emmanuel Dudafa, former adviser on domestic affairs to President Jonathan; Amajuoyi Azubuike Briggs, another former presidential aide and Adedamola Bolodeoku, former official of Skye bank pleaded not guilty. The defendants are alleged to have fraudulently received and retained various sums…
The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi, has sought collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as part of efforts to enhance the activities of both agencies. He said the EFCC could track an individual who is suspected to have been involved in any fraudulent activity with his or her driver’s licence. Oyeyemi made the remark while receiving a delegation of the EFCC led by its acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, at the FRSC headquarters in Abuja on Thursday, September 15, 2016. Oyeyemi, who said that the FRSC provides services to other law enforcement agencies to aid…
The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, has called on Chatham House to ensure that the findings of its research intervention in the fight against corruption in Nigeria are grafted into the programmes of the anti- corruption agencies in the country. He made the plea Wednesday September 14 at a dinner organized by the Royal Institute of International Affairs for researchers and participants in its workshop on Social Norms of Corruption in Nigeria at the Sheraton Hotel, Abuja. He said the Commission was pleased by the institute’s intervention, adding that the EFCC is open to…
The attention of the EFCC has been drawn to the reactions that have trailed its statement on the call by Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud SAN, recently elected president of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) that the Commission should be stripped of its prosecutorial powers. Whilst the reactions have been overwhelmingly positive, a few people seem to have read only the headlines of newspapers and online platforms that reported the statement. For the avoidance of doubt, the Commission DID NOT say the whole of the NBA is populated by rogues and vultures. The Nigerian Bar and Bench are peopled by very many…
The 56th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) came to an end August 26, in Port Harcourt with the bar making pronouncements on major issues of national importance. One of the new commitments as articulated by the new President of the Association, Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, is to reinvent the association by reclaiming its moral high ground through a campaign for ethical rectitude by members of the bar. “The NBA under my watch will fight judicial corruption. We shall make the legal profession unattractive for corrupt lawyers,” he said. This is reassuring considering the evidence that senior…
The UK Department for International Development (DFID) has expressed the readiness to collaborate with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other anti-graft agencies in the country towards ridding the country of corruption and economic and financial crimes. During a presentation by the group at the Commission’s head office in Abuja, on Monday, August 29, 2016, Oliver Blake, Team Lead, Governance and Social Development, explained that the project titled “Anti-Corruption in Nigeria” (ACORN) would revolve around ‘‘Sanction, Society and System’’ . The project coordinator, Ekanem Bassey said the project would examine financial accountability in the public sector as well…
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has called on youths all over the country to shun acts of corruption, criminality and militancy. EFCC’s Zonal Head in the South-South, Mr. Ishaq Salihu made the call in Port Harcourt last week while receiving officials of the National Patriotic Forum of Nigeria, PATFON. Salhu observed that, corruption was responsible for the low living standard of many Nigerians and urged youths to team up with the EFCC in the fight against the menace. “Say no to crime, criminality and militancy. If there is no criminality, then you can walk the street freely, he…
Malachy Ugwumadu, a Legal Luminary and Human Right Activist, has added his voice to the clarion call on the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) to bury the thought of divesting the prosecutorial powers of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Mr Abubakar Mahmoud, in his inaugural speech as the NBA President at the weekend in Port Harcourt, had advocated for divesting of the prosecutorial powers of the EFCC as he said that the Commission should be limited to investigation alone. But Ugwumadu who was speaking on a TVC News television programme, titled: “ANTI-GRAFT WAR: EFCC-TO PROSECUTE OR NOT” on August…
In recognition of his professional worthiness, the governing council of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), Abuja chapter, on August 4, has conferred the Fellowship Award of the association on the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu. While presenting Magu with the Fellowship Award letter in Abuja, the leader of the delegation, Abdullahi B.Yahaya, CNA, said, “We are here this afternoon to rejoice with our able colleague who the ANAN governing council has approved and granted a Fellowship Award of our noble profession.” Yahaya, who stated that the award ceremony would hold on October 3 and…