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.”
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