Concerns heighten over discovered N13bn as Amaechi heads for court

The ranging controversy over the ownership of the N13bn discovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Lagos last week is getting messier as various parties alleged to be connected with the funds are perfecting plans to outsmart each other.
Rotimi Amaechi is threatening to sue Ayo Fayose, Ekiti state governor and Femi Fani-Kayode, former aviation minister for alleged defarmation of character and falsehood as published on their facebook and twitter handles.
Infact, Amaechi, through his lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, is claiming N500 million compensation from Fani Kayode for the alleged fasehood on his facebook and a  retraction in at least five national dailies within seven days after the receipt of the letter.
The minister is also demanding for N750 million each for facebook and twitter publications from Fayose.
Following the discovery of $43 million, N22 million and £27,000 in a residential apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos, the NIA reportedly claimed ownership of the stashed funds.
Nyesom Wike is also laying claim insisting that the money belongs to the state and urging christians to pray for its return.
His major opponent and key ally of the minister of transportation (Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi), Dakuku Peterside, who is the DG of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and safety Agency (NIMASA), says Wike’s claim for the discovered money crashed when a federal government agency stepped forward to claim ownership.
But Femi Falana, SAN is insisting that NIA should not be allowed to play on the intelligence of Nigerians
According to Falana, the federal government would be jeopardising its whistle-blowing policy if it accepts the National Intelligence Agency’s claim over the monies recently recovered by the EFCC.
aLSO, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to address the nation on the real ownership of the N13bn discovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Lagos last week.
SERAP said the president needs to clarify the issue following the controversy that is surrounding the monies.
In a statement signed by Adetokunbo Mumuni, SERAP executive director, the organisation called on the president to also ensure legal backing for his government’s whistle-blowing policy.
“Clearing the doubts surrounding the real identities of those behind the Ikoyi cash haul would demonstrate that the president values transparency over secrecy, Mumuni said.
“This will further encourage more people to blow the whistle on governmental corruption and enhance the public right to know,” SERAP said.

Reacting in a statement on Sunday, Falana wondered why the funds, if it truly belongs to the NIA, was not kept in “a safe in the well-fortified” office of the national security adviser.

The human rights lawyer also wondered why the NIA had not briefed anti-graft agencies about the funds since the whistle-blowing policy was launched.

Falana also advised the Rivers state government, whose governor Wike claimed ownership of the funds, to file an affidavit to the effect at the federal high court.

The statement read: “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.”