The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, has launched an investigation into a case of diversion of public funds, allegedly perpetuated by some workers in the Ministry of Justice. To this effect, the anti-graft agency has asked six members of staff of the ministry (Ojuekaiye Solomon, Grace Tizhe Ibrahim, Mohammed Ibrahim, Okon Eyo-Okon, Kingsley Iheanacho Monek and Smart Taire) to report to their office for further questioning. The six are to report at various days of the week, between February14 and 21, 2022.
The investigation is sequel to one which began a few weeks ago and culminated in Ladidi Bara’atu Mohammed, Head of Assets Recovery in the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, Ministry of Justice, being invited by the EFCC for questioning over shady deals involving Nigerian assets recovered and sold off by her in alleged connivance with the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
In one of such instances, it was alleged that Malami allegedly secretly awarded a multi-billion-naira assets recovery contract to a private company and its lawyers, Gerry Ikputu and Partners, an estate valuer, which further engaged a law firm, M. E. Sheriff and Co, as its agent. This was in October 2021.
Malami allegedly charged them to recover identified large expanses of land and buildings said to belong to the Federal Government in 10 states and the Federal Capital Territory. Not only will the firms be entitled to three per cent of the value of every successful recovery, Malami’s letter awarding them the contract allegedly had a secrecy clause that bars them from making the details of the work public. The contractors would only be paid their share of the proceeds after the disposal of the recovered assets. The firm was given six months to get the job done.
According to the terms of engagement, the law firm is expected to hand over the recovered assets to the AGF for further necessary action and directives. The law firm was also charged by the AGF to work as a Project Team in collaboration with the Asset Recovery and Management Unit, headed by Mohammed, in carrying out their duty. The assets to be recovered are 74 properties located in Lagos, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Abia, Anambra, Edo, Enugu, Imo and Delta states and the FCT. While Lagos State has 29 properties to be recovered from highbrow areas of Lekki, Victoria Garden City and Apapa, Rivers State has eight properties to be recovered. Cross River and Akwa-Ibom and States have two identified properties each to be recovered. Abia State has three listed properties, Anambra State has one landed property and four buildings etc.
However, lawyers and anti-corruption campaigners, particularly Itse Sagay who chairs the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption; Debo Adeniran, the chairperson of the Centre for Anti-corruption and Open Leadership and Auwal Rafsanjan, Head of Transparency International in Nigeria, have expressed grave concerns over the assets recovery contracts being shrouded in secrecy, devoid of competitive bidding and not in line with established procurement process. They argued that the EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, not the AGF’s office, are the only authorised agencies empowered to recover stolen public assets. They decried a situation where the AGF prefers giving jobs meant for government agencies, allegedly to his friends and cronies, so that every public transaction will be shrouded in secrecy. They maintain that the AGF has no business hiring a third party to do the job.
Although Ladidi has said before in some public fora that it is nearly impossible under the present administration for recovered looted funds to be re-looted, as a mechanism has been put in place to prevent it, the onus now lies on her and the six workers in the ministry of justice to prove their innocence beyond reasonable doubt.
