Ogona Anita
Court papers filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission have linked the immediate-past Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, to the massive Abuja property with 753 duplexes and other apartments located in the Cadastral Zone area of the capital city.
The agency on Monday announced the recovery of the property from an unnamed ex-government top brass, describing the property as the biggest single recovery it had made in the course of fighting corruption since its establishment in 2003.
The recovery followed a ruling delivered on December 2, 2024 by Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie of the FCT High Court in Apo.
In the court documents obtained by our correspondent on Tuesday, the EFCC ran a narration linking Emefiele to the massive property spanning 150,500 square metre and identified as Plot 109, Cadazral Zone C09, Lokogoma District, Abuja.
Emefiele is currently being prosecuted by the EFCC in three separate cases before different judges.
Before Justice Hamza Mu’azu, he is being tried for procurement fraud, forgery of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s signature, and other charges.
Before Justice Rahman Oshodi at the Special Offences Court in Ikeja, Lagos, Emefiele is charged with alleged fraud involving $4.5bn and N2.8bn.
Additionally, Emefiele is before Justice Maryann Anenih of the FCT High Court in Abuja for allegedly approving the printing of N684.5m notes at the cost of N18.96bn.
According to the document, Emefiele allegedly carried out “monumental fraud” as the CBN governor with his cronies to acquire several properties including the estate.
The commission whilst investigating the alleged monumental fraud carried out by the immediate past Governor of the CBN and his cronies traced and discovered several properties reasonably suspected to have been acquired and or developed with proceeds of unlawful activities.
“The property highlighted in Schedule A to this application is one of the said properties recovered, having been reasonably suspected to have been acquired/ developed with proceeds of unlawful activities.”
The EFCC alleged that “in the cause of this investigation, it was revealed that the erstwhile CBN governor negotiated kickbacks in return for allocation of foreign exchange to some companies who were in desperate need of foreign exchange for their lawful and legitimate businesses.
“Our investigation equally revealed that erstwhile CBN Governor received kickbacks from some contractors who were awarded contracts by the Central Bank of Nigeria.”
The anti-graft agency also alleged that Emefiele connived with several cronies, including one Ifeanyi Omeke, who “ran several errands for him, which included purchase and perfection of title documents for several properties located in highbrow areas of Lagos and Abuja.”said the documents for the Abuja property were recovered during a search of Omeke’s office and that investigators located the property on September 17, 2024 “with the assistance of a surveyor from the Abuja Geographical Information Systems, using search results and coordinate.”
The EFCC said its investigation “revealed that the said property has been abandoned and deserted with only a guard manning the said property since June 2023 upon the arrest of the erstwhile CBN Governor. “
The PUNCH reported that the Department of State Services arrested Emefiele in Lagos the following day he was suspended by President Bola Tinubu.
In October, the EFCC arrested Emefiele in less than an hour he regained his freedom from the DSS.
According to the EFCC, the massive property, allegedly acquired by Emefiele, through cronies, was originally meant for a mass housing development.
The EFCC said its investigation revealed that Emefiele used three companies to pay a total of N2.2bn to buy the property.
It said the seller “received the aggregate sum of N2,200,000,000.00,” adding that “the said three companies used for the payment of the property are enmeshed in criminal maneuvering of layering proceeds of illegal activities of Mr. Godwin Emiefele.”
According to the EFCC, one of the companies was used to pay N900m, the second paid N700m, while the third paid N600m, totalling N2.2bn.
It said the directors of the companies were arrested “and their statements voluntarily obtained in the course of investigation.”
“The funds used in the acquisition of the property highlighted in Schedule A to this application are not legitimate earnings of Godwin Emefiele but funds acquired through illegal and unlawful activities.
“That I know as a fact and verily believe that the source/origin of the funds used in the acquisition and/or development of the properties sought to be forfeited are proceeds of unlawful activities to wit: corrupt enrichment, receiving of gratification or kickbacks and abuse of office,” an EFCC investigator stated in the affidavit filed in court.
The EFCC noted that the court had on November 1, 2024 made an order for the temporary forfeiture of the property “after evaluating facts placed before it.”
It, therefore, urged the judge to order the permanent forfeiture of the property to the Federal Government as no one had come forward to challenge the facts placed before the court, in spite of adverting the interim forfeiture order in The PUNCH edition of November 6, 2024.
According to the EFCC, the court acceded to its request and has now permanently forfeited the property to the Federal Government.
Efforts to get the reaction of Emefiele’s legal team were unsuccessfuly. One of the lawyers, Matthew Burkaa( SAN), did not pick up calls to his line and had also yet to respond to a text message seeking Emefiele’s side of the story as of the time of filing this report.
‘Why EFCC concealed property owner’s identity’
Meanwhile, EFCC spokesman, Dele Oyewale, defended the decision by the anti-graft agency not to reveal the identity of the owner of the property to the public.
He was responding to public criticisms on the motive behind concealing the identity.
“The allegation of a cover-up of the identity of the promoters of the estate stands logic on the head in the sense that the proceedings for the forfeiture of the Estate were in line with Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud Act, which is a civil proceeding that allows for action-in-rem rather than action-in-personam.
“The latter allows legal actions against a property and not an individual, especially in a situation of an unclaimed property. This Act allows you to take up a forfeiture proceeding against a chattel who is not a juristic person. This is exactly what the commission did in respect of the Estate. Individual in situations of unclaimed assets,” Oyewale said.
He added that since investigation had not been concluded, releasing the suspects’identity would be the unprofessional.
“The substantive criminal investigation on the matter continues. It will be unprofessional of the EFCC to go to town by mentioning names of individuals whose identities were not directly linked to any title document of the properties,” Oyewale stated.
PUNCH
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