EFCC files N800m fraud charges against Adoke, accomplice
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has filed seven charges against a former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Bello Adoke, and one Abubakar Aliyu at the Federal High Court, Abuja.
The charges border on alleged acceptance and spending of about N797.3m. The charges were brought under the Money Laundering Prohibition Act.
The former AG, who has been in the custody of the EFCC following his arrest at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on December 19, is also being tried for his alleged role in the controversial $1.3bn Malabu Oil scandal.
According to the charge sheet, signed by Bala Sanga, Aliyu Yusuf, M.S. Abubakar and H.A. Shehu on behalf of the acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, Adoke is facing six counts while Aliyu is facing one count.
The charges read in part, “That you, Mohammed Bello Adoke, sometime in September 2013, in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, accepted as payment the sum of United States dollars equivalent to N300,000,000.00 (Three hundred million naira) from Abubakar Aliyu and you thereby committed an offence as specified under Section 1 (a) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011 (as amended) and punishable under Section 16 (2)(b) of the same Act.
“That you, Mohammed Bello Adoke, sometime in September 2013, in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, made a payment of a sum of United States dollars equivalent to N367,318,800.00 (Three hundred and sixty-seven million, three hundred and eighteen thousand, eight hundred naira) to one Usman Mohammed Bello and you thereby committed an offence as specified under Section 1(a) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011 (as amended) and punishable under Section 16 (2)(b)of the same Act.
“That you, Mohammed Bello Adoke, on or about the 16th of September 2013, in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, did cause to be made a structured cash payment in 22 tranches of a sum of money totalling N80,000,000.00 (Eighty million naira) into your Unity Bank Plc Account No. 0020153263, which sums you knew was part of an unlawful act, to wit: the payment of an amount exceeding stated threshold amounts outside a financial institution, intending to conceal the origins of the said funds, contrary to Section 15 (2 )(a) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011 as amended and punishable under Section 15 (3) of the same Act.
The anti-graft agency, in another charge, is prosecuting Adoke and a former Minister of Petroleum, Dan Etete, for their alleged involvement in the sale of OPL 245, which was sold to Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company and Nigeria Agip Exploration by Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd. for $1.1bn.
PUNCH.
