Ex-NDCC Director Loses N846.03M Houses To FG

Ladipo Sanusi/

A former Executive Director, Projects, at Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr. Tuoyo Omatsuli, has temporarily been stripped of four properties worth N846.03 million today.

The order for the forfeiture of the properties to the Federal Government of Nigeria was made at a Federal High Court, in Lagos.

The buildings, according to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), are located in Lekki Peninsula Scheme area of Lagos. They were valued at N846.03 million.

Justice Chuka Obiozor made the order for the temporary forfeiture of the properties, following an ex-parte application filed and argued by EFCC’s lawyer, Ekene Iheanacho.

The anti-graft agency claimed in the ex-parte application that the properties were reasonably suspected to have been acquired with proceeds of unlawful activities.

In an affidavit deposed to by one of its investigators, Adamu Yusuf, the EFCC claimed that Omatsuli received a bribe of N3,645 billion from a consultant to the NDDC, Starline Consultancy Services Limited.

According to the anti-graft agency, Starline Consultancy Services Limited was engaged by the NDCC to help in the recovery of its statutory 3 per cent annual budgets of oil and gas producing companies in the Niger Delta.

Yusuf said it was agreed that Starline Consultancy Services Limited would be paid 10 per cent commission on the total funds recovered from the oil and gas companies for the NDDC.

He said that, to recover the funds, Starline Consultancy Services Limited sought and got the help of the House of Representatives Committee on NDCC, which wrote several letters to the oil and gas companies to demand that they pay their statutory levies to the NDDC.

The deponent also stated that Starline Consultancy Services Limited eventually succeeded in the job and was paid a total N10,218,019,060.59 as its 10 percent commission between August 22, 2014 and June 25, 2015.

The investigator said that some of the approvals to pay the consultancy fee were signed by Omatsuli as the ED in charge of projects at the NDDC.

“…Mr. Omatsuli agreed and received kickbacks (bribe) to the tune of N3,645 billion from Starline Consultancy Services Limited through Building Associates Limited, whose alter ego is Francis Momoh (an ally of Mr. Omatsuli),” Yusuf stated.

The anti-graft agency presented a table showing that Omatsuli allegedly received kickbacks 11 times between August 28, 2014 and September 8, 2015 from Starline Consultancy Services Limited.

On Thursday, counsel for the EFCC, Ekene Iheanacho, told Justice Obiozor that it would be in the interest of justice for the court to order that Omatsuli’s Lekki Peninsula-landed properties be temporarily forfeited to the Federal Government.

After listening to him, Justice Obiozor granted the order and directed the anti-graft agency to publish it in a national daily.

He adjourned till June 19, 2018 for anyone interested in the properties to show up in court to convince him why the properties should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.