Justice Chuka Obiozor
ordered the “suspension” of the bank accounts following an ex-parte application
by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The Federal High Court in
Lagos on Tuesday ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to
freeze three bank accounts said to belong to the Lagos State
Government over an
alleged fraud of N9.9 billion.
The three bank accounts,
domiciled in First City Monument Bank, Access Bank, and Zenith Bank, are
numbered 5617984012, 0060949275 and 1011691254, respectively.
Only about N300million is
left in the accounts.
The EFCC had prayed the
judge to freeze the account pending the conclusion of investigation and
possible prosecution of the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Chief of
Staff to former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, Adewale Adesanya.
According to an ex-parte
application, a member of the EFCC investigating team, Kungmi Daniel, said the
commission discovered “a huge inflow of N9,927,714,443.29” from the state
accounts into an FCMB bank account opened on September 17, 2018 during the
administration of former governor Akinwunmi Ambode and operated by Adesanya.
He stated that the schedule
of the FCMB account showed how Adesanya and the other signatories to the
account made fraudulent transfer from the accounts of the Lagos State
Government and dissipated the funds housed in the said accounts.
Daniel added that the trend
in the account was that the account always witnessed huge inflow from Lagos
State Government in the above scheduled accounts managed by the respondent
(Adesanya), adding upon receipt of intelligence, the EFCC analysed it and found
it worthy of investigation.
The EFCC prayed the court t
grant it an order to temporarily attach and take over the accounts to enable it
to conclude its investigations.
“There have been concerted
efforts and attempts to dissipate the contents of the accounts listed in the
schedule to this application.
“Without freezing the
nominated accounts and temporarily forfeiting the money to the Government of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria, there is no way the fraud being perpetrated
using the scheduled accounts can be stopped,” the EFCC said.
After listening to
submission by the EFCC lawyer, Mohammed Abbas, Justice Obiozor granted the
prayers.
He adjourned further
proceedings in the matter till September 9, 2019.
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