N13bn seized Ikoyi cash abandoned as EFCC declares NIA DG’s wife owner of apartment

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– The EFCC tendered receipt to show that Folashade Oke, wife of suspended NIA DG Ayodele paid in cash for the property

– The property was bought in the name of a company Chobe Ventures in which she and her son were directors

– EFCC investigator Chiroma says the company is not known to do any business and may have been set up to buy the apartment to stash the funds

The Punch is reporting that nobody showed up in court today, Friday, May 5 to claim the around N13billion seized by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

According to the report, Justice Muslim Hassan, the presiding judge of a federal high court in Lagos, heard the case on Friday, nobody was present to claim the funds.

READ ALSO: 9 soldiers, 40 Boko Haram members killed at Lake Chad

EFCC’s lawyer Rotimi Oyedepo urged the court to order that the money be forfeited to the federal government because “extremely suspicious to be proceeds of unlawful acts.”

EFCC says Folashade, the wife of NIA DG, Ayodele Oke bought the Ikoyi apartment where the cash was found.

Oyedepo noted that there is no reason why the money should not permanently be forfeited to the federal government after it has remained unclaimed despite the initial order of April 13, 2017 temporarily forfeiting the money to the Nigerian government.

In a related vein, EFCC’s counsel provided evidence to Justice Hassam to prove that the wife of the suspended director-general of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) Folashade Oke owned the flat where the N13bn was found.

According to the EFCC, Mrs Oke made cash payment of $1.658m for the purchase of the flat between August 25 and September 3, 2015 in the name of a company Chobe Ventures Limited.

The anti-graft agency, which also provided the receipt issued by Fine and Country Limited to Chobe Ventures Limited for the property as an exhibit, said Mrs Oke and her son Master Ayodele

Oke Junior were directors in the company.

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Oyedepo argued: “The circumstances leading to the discovery of the huge sums stockpiled in Flat 7B, Osborne Towers leaves no one in doubt that the act was pursuant to an unlawful activity.

“The very act of making cash payment of $1.6m without going through any financial institution by Mrs. Folashade Oke for the acquisition of Flat 7B, Osborne Towers, is a criminal act punishable by the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Amendment Act. I refer My Lord to sections 1(a), 16(d) and 16(2)(b) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Amendment Act.”

A detective inspector with the EFCC Mohammed Chiroma said investigations showed that “Chobe Ventures Limited is not into any business but was merely incorporated to retain proceeds of suspected unlawful activities of Mrs. Folashade Oke.”

Meanwhile, ZENITHBLOG.com earlier reported that Kingsley Kuku, a former special adviser on Niger Delta to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, has claimed he is a victim of the rivalry between the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Department of State Services (DSS).

Kuku said this in a statement released on Thursday May 4.

ZENITHBLOG.com had gathered that in 2015, the EFCC invited him several times for questioning over alleged financial fraud, but he failed to honour the invitations.

Watch this ZENITHBLOG.com TV video of a former NNPC group managing director Andrew Yakubu arraigned in court by EFCC over fraud allegations

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