<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The anti-graft 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.<\/p>\n

The recovery followed a ruling delivered on December 2, 2024 by Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie of the FCT High Court in Apo.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Emefiele is currently being prosecuted by the EFCC in three separate cases before different judges.<\/p>\n

Before Justice Hamza Mu\u2019azu, he is being tried for procurement fraud, forgery of former President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s signature, and other charges.<\/p>\n

Before Justice Rahman Oshodi at the Special Offences Court in Ikeja, Lagos, Emefiele is charged with alleged fraud involving $4.5bn and N2.8bn.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

According to the document, Emefiele allegedly carried out \u201cmonumental fraud\u201d as the CBN governor with his cronies to acquire several properties including the estate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The EFCC alleged that \u201cin 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur investigation equally revealed that erstwhile CBN Governor received kickbacks from some contractors who were awarded contracts by the Central Bank of Nigeria.\u201d<\/p>\n

The anti-graft agency also alleged that Emefiele connived with several cronies, including one Ifeanyi Omeke, who \u201cran several errands for him, which included purchase and perfection of title documents for several properties located in highbrow areas of Lagos and Abuja.\u201d<\/p>\n

It said the documents for the Abuja property were recovered during a search of Omeke\u2019s office and that investigators located the property on September 17, 2024 \u201cwith the assistance of a surveyor from the Abuja Geographical Information Systems, using search results and coordinate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The EFCC said its investigation \u201crevealed 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. \u201c<\/p>\n

The Department of State Services arrested Emefiele in Lagos the following day he was suspended by President Bola Tinubu.<\/p>\n

In October, the EFCC arrested Emefiele in less than an hour he regained his freedom from the DSS.<\/p>\n

According to the EFCC, the massive property, allegedly acquired by Emefiele, through cronies, was originally meant for a mass housing development.<\/p>\n

The EFCC said its investigation revealed that Emefiele used three companies to pay a total of N2.2bn to buy the property.<\/p>\n

It said the seller \u201creceived the aggregate sum of N2,200,000,000.00,\u201d adding that \u201cthe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

It said the directors of the companies were arrested \u201cand their statements voluntarily obtained in the course of investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat 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,\u201d an EFCC investigator stated in the affidavit filed in court.<\/p>\n

The EFCC noted that the court had on November 1, 2024 made an order for the temporary forfeiture of the property \u201cafter evaluating facts placed before it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

According to the EFCC, the court acceded to its request and has now permanently forfeited the property to the Federal Government.<\/p>\n

Efforts to get the reaction of Emefiele\u2019s 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\u2019s side of the story as of the time of filing this report.<\/p>\n

\u2018Why EFCC concealed property owner\u2019s identity\u2019<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

He was responding to public criticisms on the motive behind concealing the identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d Oyewale said.<\/p>\n

He added that since investigation had not been concluded, releasing the suspects\u2019identity would be the unprofessional.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d Oyewale stated.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Credit- punch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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