Azeez Folorunso & Ladipo Sanusi/
Controversy is trailing yesterday’s declaration by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that the man whose whistle blowing led to the discovery of over N15billion, in various currencies inside a flat at Osborne Towers in Lagos, is now a millionaire
Few hours after declaring the man a millionaire, his lawyers called NewsmakersNG raising concerns over the claim. The lawyers also disputed the N13billion official EFCC figure, claiming that the actual recovered sum was N17billion.
NewsmakersNG put the figure at N15billion when it broke the story on April 12, 2017.
According to the lawyer, Yakubu Galadima Esq, who has also written a Letter of Complaint to President Muhammadu Buhari, the EFCC has refused to pay or communicate with the whistle-blower since the money was discovered.
“He is yet to be paid his legitimate commission,” he said.
Galadima added: “The claim by the anti-graft Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, in Vienna, Austria, two days ago that the whistle-blower is now a millionaire after the commission has redeemed its pledge is an attempt to mislead the whole world.”
In his reaction, EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, told NewsmakersNG that he would not comment on the matter unless the name of the whistle-blower is given to him even though the identity is meant to be protected.
Galadima later gave details during a meeting with NewsmakersNG correspondent at Lagos High Court, in Ikeja, today.
He said that the agency lied by saying the whistle-blower had been paid a whooping sum of N325million being 2.5 per cent of the $43million, N23.2million and £27,800 recovered from a flat at Osborne Towers in Ikoyi.
Galadima insisted that the actual total sum recovered in the apartment was N17billion contrary to EFCC’s N13 billion claim.
He said, “The whistle-blower is still in hiding and he has not received a Kobo contrary to reports of the EFCC chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, in Austria.
“My clients want to state in clear terms that the EFCC under-declared the loot found in the Ikoyi apartment and that the total money reported was N17billion and not N13billion declared.
“The total sum counted in a transparent manner was N17billion. The Central Bank of Nigeria officials were there with their counting machines. The monies counted, recorded and marked as exhibit in the presence of stakeholders was N17billion and not N13billion as it is being claimed by the EFCC.
“The whistle-blower is being fed and clothed by me. He is in hideout and the EFCC does not know his whereabouts, and has not made any correspondence to him up till this moment.
“We had written letters to President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malamute, on this issue but no concrete action has been taken to reward the whistle blowers.
“We are using this opportunity to debunk the claim of Magu that the whistle-blower is now a millionaire. We want to tell the whole world that he is in penury. The EFCC neither rewarded nor fed him. As at today we have not received any communication from them since the discovery.”
Galadima lamented that his client was unjustly treated by the anti-graft agency, as he was used and dumped after the commission was led to the Ikoyi apartment.
He said that he advised his client to do the right thing, when he was approached by the client that there was a large sum of monies running into billions in the apartment, that they would enter the place and collect their own.
He said that he had urged the whistle-blower to follow the path of law through the policy of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
He noted that the continuous denial of whistle-blowers their reward would impact negatively on the anti corruption war of the government.
Meanwhile, a Federal High Court, in Lagos, has ordered the temporary forfeiture of Flat 7B Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, where the sums of $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 were discovered on April 12.
Justice Saliu Saidu ordered the forfeiture of the flat to the Federal Government following an ex parte application by the EFCC.
The EFCC said it found out that Mrs Folashade Oke, the wife of the Director General of the Nigeria Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Olusola Oke, made a cash payment of $1.658million for the purchase of the flat between August 25 and September 3, 2015.
She allegedly purchased the property in the name of a company, Chobe Ventures Limited, to which she and her son, Master Ayodele Oke Junior, were directors.
The EFCC stated that Mrs. Oke made the cash payment in tranches of $700,000, $650,000 and $353,700 to a Bureau de Change company, Sulah Petroleum and Gas Limited, which later converted the sums into N360,000,000 and subsequently paid it to one Fine and Country Limited for the purchase of the property.
The judge adjourned the matter till November 30 for anyone to show cause why the interim order should not be made final.
Here’s NewsmakersNG story on April 12, 2017: http://www.newsmakersng.com/2017/04/12/efcc-finds-hidden-n15bn-naira-in-ikoyi-lagos-home/
0