Explosive! EFCC Freezes N9.9bn Accounts Linked To Ambode Over Money Laundering

Court Freezes Ambode's Accounts Over Alleged 9.9bn Fraud
The Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has in accordance with the Federal High Court’s order froze three bank accounts allegedly belonging to the Lagos State Government. This was over an N9.9bn fraud traced to the government’s accounts domiciled in First City Monument Bank, Access Bank and Zenith Bank with account numbers 5617984012, 0060949275 and 1011691254, respectively. Justice Chuka Obiozor following an application for suspension of the account by the EFCC ordered the immediate suspension of the account pending the conclusion of the investigation by the government. Following the investigation, there may be a possible prosecution of the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Chief of Staff to the Governor of Lagos State, Adewale Adesanya, for money laundering.
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According to the affidavit filed in support of the ex parte application, a member of the EFCC investigating team, Kungmi Daniel, revealed that the commission discovered “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 Akinwunmi Ambode administration operated by Adesanya. In addition, Daniel added that they discovered that Adesanya and the other signatories to the account made fraudulent transfers from the accounts of the Lagos State Government and dissipated the funds in the said accounts. He said: “The trend in the account is that the account always witnessed a huge inflow from Lagos State Government into the above-scheduled accounts managed by the respondent (Adesanya).”Court Freezes Ambode's Accounts Over Alleged 9.9bn Fraud Reaching out to the court, EFCC asked the court to grant them temporary access to the account so they can conduct full interview saying: “There have been concerted efforts and attempts to dissipate the contents of the accounts listed in the schedule to this application. 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.” In accordance with this, Justice Obiozor granted them access as he adjourned further proceedings in the matter till September 9, 2019.Photo Credit: Getty

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