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Emefiele, Cronies Acquired 753-Duplex Estate With Forex Kickbacks — EFCC

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Court papers filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have linked the immediate-past Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, to a massive property in Abuja, consisting of 753 duplexes and other apartments located in the Cadastral Zone area of the capital city.

On Monday, the EFCC announced the recovery of the property from an unnamed former top government official, calling it the largest single recovery the agency had made in its history of fighting corruption since its establishment in 2003.

The recovery followed a ruling on December 2, 2024, by Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie of the FCT High Court in Apo.

Court documents obtained by our correspondent on Tuesday detail how the EFCC connected Emefiele to the massive estate, which spans 150,500 square meters and is identified as Plot 109, Cadastral Zone C09, Lokogoma District, Abuja.

Emefiele is currently facing prosecution by the EFCC in three separate cases before different judges.

Before Justice Hamza Mu’azu, he is on trial for procurement fraud, forgery of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s signature, and other charges.

Before Justice Rahman Oshodi at the Special Offences Court in Ikeja, Lagos, Emefiele is charged with fraud involving $4.5bn and N2.8bn.

Additionally, Emefiele faces charges before Justice Maryann Anenih of the FCT High Court in Abuja for allegedly approving the printing of N684.5m worth of notes at the cost of N18.96bn.

According to the EFCC’s documents, Emefiele is accused of carrying out a “monumental fraud” while serving as CBN governor, with the assistance of his cronies, to acquire several properties, including the estate.

“The 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,” the EFCC stated.

The agency further alleged that Emefiele negotiated kickbacks in exchange for allocating foreign exchange to companies in desperate need of funds for legitimate business activities.

The EFCC also claimed that Emefiele received kickbacks from contractors awarded contracts by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The investigation revealed that Emefiele collaborated with several cronies, including one Ifeanyi Omeke, who “ran several errands for him, including the purchase and perfection of title documents for properties located in highbrow areas of Lagos and Abuja.”

The EFCC said the documents for the Abuja property were recovered during a search of Omeke’s office, and investigators located the property on September 17, 2024, “with the assistance of a surveyor from the Abuja Geographical Information Systems, using search results and coordinates.”

The agency noted that the property has been abandoned since June 2023, following the arrest of the former CBN governor.

In October, the EFCC arrested Emefiele shortly after he regained his freedom from the Department of State Services (DSS), which had previously detained him.

The EFCC further disclosed that the massive property, allegedly acquired through cronies, was originally intended for a mass housing development. The investigation revealed that Emefiele used three companies to pay a total of N2.2bn for the property.

It said the seller “received the aggregate sum of N2,200,000,000.00” and that the three companies involved in the payment were “enmeshed in criminal maneuvering of layering proceeds of illegal activities of Mr. Godwin Emefiele.”

The EFCC alleged that one company paid N900m, a second company paid N700m, and a third company paid N600m, bringing the total to N2.2bn.

It further stated that the directors of the companies were arrested, and their statements were voluntarily obtained during the investigation.

“The 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,” an EFCC investigator stated in the affidavit filed in court.

The EFCC added that the court had, on November 1, 2024, made an order for the temporary forfeiture of the property after evaluating the facts before it. The commission requested that the judge now order the permanent forfeiture of the property to the Federal Government, as no one had contested the facts, despite the interim forfeiture order being published (in The Punch) on November 6, 2024.

The court agreed to the EFCC’s request, and the property has now been permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.

Attempts to reach Emefiele’s legal team for comment were unsuccessful. One of his lawyers, Matthew Burkaa (SAN), did not respond to calls or text messages seeking Emefiele’s side of the story.

‘Why EFCC Concealed Property Owner’s Identity’

EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale defended the agency’s decision not to reveal the identity of the property’s owner.

Responding to public criticism about the concealment, Oyewale explained, “The 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.”

He added that the civil proceeding focused on the property itself, not an individual, especially since the property was “unclaimed.” He emphasized that since the investigation was ongoing, revealing the identities of suspects not directly linked to title documents would be unprofessional.

“The 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,” Oyewale concluded.

BIG STORY

FCT People Will Show Wike During LG Council Poll — Senator Kingibe [VIDEO]

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The Senator stated that the FCT minister does not understand the people’s needs and is failing to address them.

The Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory, Ireti Kingibe, says residents of the capital will take action against FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, in the upcoming local government election in Abuja.

Kingibe, while appearing on Channels Television’s Political Paradigm, said Wike is out of touch with the people’s needs and has not been meeting them.

“The truth is that the people of the FCT resent Wike,” she said. “They are not happy with his attitude and his failure to meet their needs.”

She noted that the forthcoming local council elections would serve as a test of the minister’s performance.

“The people will show him who owns the FCT during the council polls,” she added.

Watch VIDEO HERE

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BIG STORY

Atiku May Not Have Been Destined To Become Nigeria’s President — Daniel Bwala

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Daniel Bwala, a presidential aide, has said that his former principal and ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar may not have been destined to become Nigeria’s President.

“There is my former principal who believes that he is going to win,” Bwala said during Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Monday, dismissing the chances of Atiku and other opposition coalition leaders like Peter Obi and Rotimi Amaechi to defeat President Bola Tinubu in 2027.

“In all honesty, I have expressed my opinion that it may never have been destined by God for him to be a president in Nigeria because he has done everything he needs to do to be president and he did not win the presidency.

“2023 was the biggest opportunity that my former principal Atiku Abubakar had. He will never have that kind of privilege again,” he said.

Interestingly, Bwala served as Atiku’s campaign spokesperson during the 2023 election but later switched his allegiance to Tinubu.

Opposition has no alternative policies

Opposition leaders recently agreed to use the African Democratic Party as the platform for their coalition to remove Tinubu, whom they accused of leading the country backward.

However, Bwala dismissed their efforts, saying they have failed to provide alternative policies that could convince Nigerians to support them.

“What I still find intriguing is that this coalition of internally displaced politicians have not been able to summon the courage and come up with alternative facts, alternative policies or alternative programmes.

“Throughout the interview you had with Peter Obi, what I find is that he has not been able to counter or to disagree in the real sense of the word with the policies that we are implementing,” he said.

Coalition will scatter in six months

Bwala further downplayed the threat posed by the opposition coalition to Tinubu’s presidency, predicting that the coalition would not last beyond six months.

He stated that internal disputes over who would emerge as the presidential candidate under the ADC would break up the coalition, ultimately benefiting Tinubu in 2027.

“All this fantasy of coalition, we all know that once there is a phenomenon like that we are going to have a good two to three weeks of all these romanticizing of ‘we have ideas, we can do this’.

“But one of them, his name is Datti (Baba-Ahmed) already sensed the danger that is ahead for them and he said that the problem of theis coalition will be who will be the president because right now, I’m quoting him, ‘everybody wants to be the president’.

“After one month when they sit down, I am telling you on my own honour, in the next six months, that coalition thing will not even be a conversation, they will scatter,” Bwala added.

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BIG STORY

Inside Lagos: Man Burnt With Hot Oil For Stealing In Mushin Market

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An unidentified man is in critical condition after a mob attacked him with hot oil for allegedly stealing groundnut oil at a market near the Alakara Police Station in the Mushin area of Lagos State.

Report has it that the incident occurred on Friday.

According to The Punch, a resident under anonymity on Monday said that the man pretended to be a customer, took the item from a stall, and was caught in the act.

Angered by the theft, the mob reportedly heated some of the groundnut oil he was accused of stealing and poured it on his back.

“He pretended to be a customer, and while the owner of the shop was busy attending to others, he lifted a bottle of groundnut oil and left. He did not know he was sighted by another trader. That was how he was approached and caught with the product. He was stripped naked and beaten by the mob, who then decided to heat the groundnut oil and poured it on his back while he was lying down,” the source said.

The suspect was said to have been left unconscious with severe burns and abandoned near the market.

A resident, Omoluabi Ifeoluwa, who raised the alarm about the suspect’s condition, revealed that the man was found on Sunday lying in a gutter close to the police without receiving medical assistance.

Ifeoluwa, who shared the information on the community WhatsApp group, stated that he received a distress call and contacted health officials and the police.

He wrote, “On receiving a distress call, I was informed that a seemingly lifeless body had been lying in a gutter near Alakara Police Station along Agege Motor Road for over two days without attention. Upon verification of this disturbing report, I promptly contacted the following officials for immediate action: Medical Officer of Health, Mushin Local Government. Supervisor for Health, Mushin Local Government and Divisional Police Officer, Alakara Police Station

Following this, I arranged for an ambulance through the Lagos State Emergency Services, and we proceeded swiftly to the location. On arrival, we found a man in an extremely critical and unhygienic condition.” According to eyewitnesses, he was allegedly caught attempting to steal groundnut oil. As punishment, the oil was reportedly poured on him, and he was left in that state.”

Ifeoluwa explained that after cleaning him up, the general hospital where he was taken refused to admit him.

“We were advised to transfer him to Gbagada General Hospital for further care. Unfortunately, due to a lack of further support, medical acceptance, or guidance, I was unable to continue with the process. With no clear path forward and without institutional assistance, I was left with no choice but to let him go,” he added.

When reached for comments, the Divisional Police Officer, Enyinna Nwankudu, stated that the officers had made efforts to retrieve the man from where he was found.

He said, “When we saw him, we contacted the local government officials and health workers who came to remove him from inside the drainage. He was initially thought to be dead, but he was not. He has been taken care of.”

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