Ambode N9.9bn Fraud: Cacol hails EFFC, call for forensic evidence on culprits

The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, CACOL, has praised the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for securing a Federal High court order to freeze three bank accounts said to belong to the former Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode over an alleged N9.9bn (Nine Billion, Nine Hundred Million Naira) fraud.

In his reaction, the CACOL’s Executive Chairman, Mr. Debo Adeniran in a release issued by the organization’s Coordinator for Media and Publications, Adegboyega Otunuga remarked, “It would be recalled that in the course of the compilation of our Op-ed Publications for apprising the state government in Lagos state of its performance score-card, LOP4 (Lagos state Open Parliament), we had asked the general public to furnish us of hard or soft evidence, suggesting suspicious lodgings by any government official of funds belonging to the state; nobody was able to do this throughout our investigation for that particular LOP edition.

“It is, therefore, curious, though commendable, if such lodgings have been discovered to be in separate bank accounts and interpreted to be for illicit self-enrichment and corruptive purposes. These banks have also now been revealed by the EFCC to be First City Monument Bank, FCMB, Access Bank and Zenith Bank with their account numbers given as: 5617984012, 0060949275, and 1011691254, respectively.

“Consequently, we take heed of the screaming headlines of the EFCC that already link the Banks’ accounts to the person of the immediate past governor of the state, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, and urge the anti-graft agency to do due diligence in ascertaining ownership, purposefulness, and all necessary examinations of issues, remote and immediate, surrounding the humongous lodgings so as to avert possibilities of any witch-hunt.”

The CACOL Boss added, “We remain convinced that official corruption must be tackled, frontally, if Nigeria must heave a sigh of relief and reverse itself from a  seeming trip to economic and social perdition, hence, our total commitment and support for the war against the ogre of  corruption.

“Howbeit, for the fight to achieve the set goals of the current federal government and tallies with the wish of majority Nigerians (who are usually the main victims) the innocent must never be framed-up, witchhunted or sacrificed on the altar of political expediency or self-righteousness”.

It is to be noted that, the EFCC, in a Press statement by its spokesman, Tony Orilade, titled, ‘EFCC Secures Freezing Order on Accounts Linked to Ex-Gov. Ambode over Alleged N9.9bn Fraud’, said Justice Chuka Obiozor of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, on Tuesday ordered the freezing of the sum of N9.9bn belonging to the Lagos State Government.

The applicant, EFCC, in an affidavit deposed to by Kungmi Daniel, an operative of the Commission, stated that there was “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 the immediate past governor of the state, Akinwunmi Ambode, and operated by Adesanya.

It was further stated that the schedule of the FCMB account showed how Adesanya and 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.

Abbas, therefore, prayed the court to grant an order to temporarily attach and take over the accounts to enable it conclude its investigations.

“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,” he further told the court.