Following
the decision of a court which ordered former Nigerian petroleum
minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke to forfeit $153.3 million allegedly
stolen, the NNPC has reacted.
Former Nigerian petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Saturday reacted to a
court ruling ordering a temporary forfeiture of $153.3 million
purportedly belonging to former Nigerian petroleum minister, Diezani
Alison-Madueke.
The corporation said it would study details of the court ruling
before taking its next action. A ruling by Justice Muslim Hassan of the
Lagos Division of the Federal High Court, on Friday, ordered a seizure
of the money which was stolen from the NNPC, according to the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission, and stashed in three Nigerian banks, in
US Dollars and Naira.
According to a report by Premium Times, NNPC’s spokesperson, Ndu Ughamadu reacted and said:
“It was a court ruling, and we have not studied the proceedings; when we do that we’ll know our response."
The EFCC had gone to court after its investigation revealed that
out of the $153.3 million, N23.4 billion was kept in Sterling Bank Plc,
N9.08 billion in First Bank Plc, and $5 million in Access Bank Plc.
In his ruling on Friday, Mr. Hassan gave Sterling Bank and any
other interested parties 14 days to appear before him to prove the
legitimacy of the monies, failure of which the funds would be
permanently forfeited to the Nigerian government.
The judge made the order in favour of the EFCC which appeared
before him with an ex parte application seeking the temporary forfeiture
of the funds.
According to the Commission, in December 2014, Mrs. Alison-Madueke
invited the Managing Director of Fidelity Bank Plc, Nnamdi Okonkwo, to
her office where they hatched the plan to move $153,310,000 out of the
NNPC for the minister.
Mrs. Alison-Madueke, according to Mr. Awolusi, instructed Mr.
Okonkwo to ensure that the money was “neither credited into any known
account nor captured in any transaction platforms” of Fidelity Bank.
Mr. Okonkwo accepted and implemented the deal leading to the movement of $153,310,000 from NNPC to Fidelity Bank.
He said that two former Group Executive Directors of Finance and
Account of NNPC, B.O.N. Otti and Stanley Lawson, helped Mrs.
Alison-Madueke to move the cash from NNPC, Abuja, to the headquarters of
Fidelity Bank in Lagos.
In 2012, Mr. Otti, alongside Steve Oronsaye, hugged headlines for
attempting to discredit the report of the Nuhu Ribadu-led Petroleum
Revenue Special Task Force which exposed the monumental corruption in
Nigeria’s petroleum industry.
While he was serving as a member of the task force, Mr. Otti was appointed into the board of the NNPC by Mrs. Alison-Madueke.
Mr. Awolusi said in a desperate bid to conceal the source of the
money, Mr. Okonkwo, upon receiving it, instructed the Country Head of
Fidelity Bank, Martin Izuogbe, to take $113,310,000 cash out of the
money to the Executive Director, Commercial and Institutional Bank,
Sterling Bank Plc, Lanre Adesanya, to keep.
The sum of $5 million was kept with the Managing Director Access Bank Plc, Herbert Wigwe.
He said the remaining $40 million was taken in cash to the
Executive Director, Public Sector Accountant, First Bank, Dauda Lawal,
to keep.
“We said that and we still maintain that.”
The EFCC arrested Mr. Lawal, Executive Director, Public Sector at
First Bank, in May last year for allegedly helping Mrs. Alison-Madueke
to launder $25 million.
Mr. Lawal had denied the allegations against him, maintaining that
his relationship with the former minister was purely a professional one.
“This allegation is malicious and without substance in any material particular.”
Reacting to the court order, Babatunde Lasaki, the Spokesperson of
First Bank Plc, revealed that First Bank was not directly involved in
the transaction.
“We’ve said this thing before now that the transaction
regarding Diezani and Mr. (Dauda) Lawal was in his personal capacity,
and the money was not a First Bank transaction,” he said.
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