Court freezes accounts linked to former Lagos governor, Ambode, over N9.9bn alleged fraud
A Lagos
Division of the Federal High Court on Tuesday ordered the freezing of three
bank accounts allegedly linked to the Lagos State government and former governor,
Akinwunmi Ambode, over an alleged N9.9 billion fraud.
Chuka Obiozor, the judge, ordered
the temporary freezing of the accounts, domiciled in Zenith Bank, Access Bank,
and First City Monument Bank, following an exparte application brought by the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
According to the EFCC, N9.9
billion was paid from the state government’s accounts into the FCMB account
opened on September 17, 2018, and operated by Adewale Adesanya, the permanent
secretary in the Office of the Chief of Staff to Mr Ambode.
The anti-graft commission urged
the court to freeze the account pending the conclusion of their investigation
and possible prosecution of Mr Adesanya.
In an affidavit filed in support
of the ex parte application, Kungmi Daniel, a member of the EFCC investigating
team, said the schedule of the FCMB account showed how Mr Adesanya and the
other signatories to the account made fraudulent fund transfers into the
account from the accounts of the Lagos State Government.
“The trend in the account is that
the account always witnessed huge inflow from Lagos State Government in the
above-scheduled accounts managed by the respondent (Adesanya),” the
investigator said.
He said the commission received an
intelligence on the transfers, analysed it, and found it worthy of
investigation.
The EFCC prayed the court to 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,” the EFCC said.
“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 judge, after listening to the
EFCC’s lawyer, Mohammed Abbas, ordered the ”suspension” of the accounts and
adjourned till September 9.
Premium times
0 Comments