Detectives are to question a former governor and some high-profile owners of apartments in Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos where $43.4million was recover
Detectives are to question a former governor and some high-profile owners of apartments in Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos where $43.4million was recovered last week Wednesday. Besides, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has identified how the controversial apartment 7B, where the $43.4m was kept, was acquired. Also recovered were £27,000 and N23m cash.
A source at the commission said, “The more we investigate this $43.4m haul, the more we get fresh facts. It has become imperative to interact with some owners or tenants of apartments in the Towers. We have invited a former governor and other high-profile owners and tenants for interaction. It is just to ask a few questions on whether or not they were aware of such movement of cash. We have clues linking some occupants of the Towers to the cash haul. And in line with sections 16 and 17 of the EFCC (Establishment Act) 2004, we are inviting these landlords or tenants.
“Unless we get to the root of this case, Nigerians may not know the truth or otherwise about the cash. We are not saying that those invited are guilty of any infraction or having link with the $43.4million but we need to hear from them – in line with the ongoing profiling of those in the Towers. Since investigation is still ongoing, we will not release the identity of the owner of the company. Doing so might jeopardise investigation,” the source said, adding that the EFCC had interacted with “some people from the company.”
A National Intelligence Agency (NIA) source said of the apartment: “What happened was that because of the nature of the covert operations which the apartment will be used for, it was necessary to manage the process well.”
Only the Deed of Assignment was acquired by Thabis Ventures Limited on behalf of NIA. “And immediately the process for the purchase of the apartment was completed, the ownership was clearly stated in the name of NIA. All the papers are reflecting NIA too, he said, adding: “The title document is available for anyone to verify.”
Meanwhile, the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, has written to a former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, and an aide to Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, Mr. Lere Olayinka, citing character defamation over the allegation that he (the minister) owns the $43m (about N13bn) seized by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission in Ikoyi, Lagos. Amaechi, in letters dated April 14, 2017, written on his behalf by his lawyer, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), to the two men, said his client had been defamed by the claims of the two men.
Fagbemi is demanding N500m from Fani-Kayode as compensation for the alleged malicious posts by the former minister on his twitter handle on April 14. He is also demanding two separate sums of N750m totalling N1.5bn from Olayinka as compensation for the alleged “malicious” posts by the Ekiti State Governor’s spokesperson on his facebook timeline and twitter handle on April 14.
In his letter to Fani-Kayode, Fagbemi said it was wrong for the former minister to assume that Amaechi owned the flat and the money found in it. Fagbemi said as a lawyer, Fani-Kayode knew that he ought to approach the Land Registry, especially in Lagos State, where he said there were proper records of property owners, in order to verify the ownership of the property in question. He said the former deliberately refused to carry out a diligent search in order to achieve a malicious aim.
