EFCC claims Governors Forum laundered N10B as court freezes 7 bank accounts

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has claimed that the

In a report by Punch, this was made known at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday, November 29, 2017 during a court session when the anti-graft agency revealed its findings to the court.

The EFCC succeeded in getting an order under Justice Gabriel Kolawole to freeze seven different bank accounts that has been allegedly linked to the Nigerian Governors' Forum.

The seven accounts, according to the EFCC, were used by the NGF to launder the sum of N10bn in four different banks that include Jaiz Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank, Access Bank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc.

The frozen accounts are 0002184449 with Jaiz Bank Plc and operated by HAD Properties Limited; 0025600864 with Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and operated by Hassan Ahmed Danbaba; as well as 0005892453 with Access Bank Plc and operated by Melrose General Services Coy.

They also include one Access Bank account, 0045824054 and another Zenith Bank Plc account 1010948906, both of which belong to Bina Consult and Integrated Services.

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The rest are two Access Bank Plc accounts – 0700755576 and 0700946008 – belonging to Farouk Adamu Aliyu and Malam Alu Agro Allied Company Ltd., respectively.

Justice Kolawole directed that the freezing order would last for 45 days within which the EFCC must either institute charges in respect of the transactions against the relevant suspects or apply to the court for an extension of the order.

The judge also gave seven days to the account owners, if interested in seeking the setting aside of the freezing order, to file an application which must be served on the EFCC.

The EFCC investigator maintained that the court order freezing the accounts was needed to enable the anti-graft agency to carry out its investigation to a logical conclusion.

Allegation of impropriety

The EFCC had alleged that there were some improper ways of distributing funds from the Paris Club refund after President Buhari ordered the payment of the funds.

Seven governors were reportedly on the anti-graft agency's watch list but the Governors Forum had insisted that nothing illegal was done in the distribution of the funds.