The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will, this week, arraign a former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Haliru Mohammed, and his son, Abbah, before a Federal High Court in Abuja on four counts of money laundering involving about N300m, which he allegedly collected from the Office of the National Security Adviser.
The firm, Bam Properties, through which both Bello, who was also a former Minister of Defence, and his son allegedly collected the money from the Office of the NSA, is also one the three accused in the charge FHC/ABJ/CR/389/2015.
The accused are to be arraigned before Justice Ahmed Mohammed, who is currently serving as a vacation judge in the Abuja division of the court.
The accused allegedly received the money from the office of the former National Security Adviser on March 17, 2015 for political campaign but which was purportedly meant for “Safe Houses.
The prosecution stated in the first count that the N300m collected by the accused was part of proceeds of Dasuki’s unlawful activity.
Dasuki and many others are already being prosecuted before two judges of the Federal Capital Territory High Court in relation to diversion of the sum of N45bn meant for the procurement of arms.
The prosecution alleged in the second count that the accused received the money under the guise that it was meant for “Safe Houses” but was actually released to them for political campaign.
Counts one and two are said to be offences contrary to Section 15 (2) (d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 as amended in 2012 and punishable under section 15 (3) of the same Act.
In count three, the accused allegedly concealed the money in their Sterling Bank Plc. account when they “knew Doctor Aliru Bello and Col. Mohammed Sambo Dasuki (retd.) to be engaged in a criminal conduct.”
The offence is said to be contrary to Section 17 (a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 as amended in 2012 and punishable under section 17 (b) of the same Act.
Meanwhile, former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), may have found a serving or retired federal civil servant in the director cadre who owns N250m worth of property in Abuja to stand as bail surety for him.
Dasuki and some of his co-accused had been remanded in Kuje prison since December 21 over their inability to meet the bail conditions imposed by a Federal Capital Territory High Court in Maitama, Abuja, with respect to charges of misappropriation of arms fund preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
With the breakthrough in the search for a surety, sources said Dasuki, who was moved along with others to Kuje prison on December 21, pending when he would meet the bail conditions, would on Tuesday present all necessary documents to complete the processing of the bail.
Dasuki and some of his co-accused were granted bail by Justice Baba Yusuf in the sum of N250m with one surety, who must be a retired or serving director in the Federal Civil Service or any of the Federal Government’s establishments on December 18.
Justice Yusuf, who granted the bail with respect to the 19 counts of misappropriation of N32bn preferred against Dasuki and others, had also ordered that each surety to be produced by the accused persons must own property in Abuja that was worth N250m.
Sources close to the ex-NSA told our correspondent that directors in the Federal Civil Service who own property worth as much as N250m that had been contacted were afraid of the possibility of being arrested by the EFCC to account for how they acquired such property.
The source said, “He (Dasuki) has found a surety. Due to the public holiday on Monday, we have to wait till Tuesday before we can present all the necessary documents and the verification ordered by the judge can be done.
“We hope that the process can be completed on Tuesday to enable the judge sign the warrant that will release him from prison.”
When contacted, Dasuki’s lawyer, Mr. Ahmed Raji (SAN), who refrained from giving much details about the steps being taken to meet the bail conditions, simply said, “We are meeting the bail conditions, God willing.” Punch
How I wish this investigations could be thorough and quick, both at the Federal and state but who will do this ?Even if we are to limit this to the immediate past administration it would be better to handle this holistically to forestall future sentiment and politicking.
How do we explain what we are expriencing now with our politician and the civil servants. Hardly will you open daily newspaper without seen horibble tabloid on corruption The entirely country was raped by politicians and their civil servant counterparts and the best we are getting now is passing the bulk between political parties. People that are suppose to be in jail are roaming the street and the best we could get is promise of further hardship. The APC should please learn from PDP to quickly relinquish power as soon as they find out they could not move us forward positively so that we could quickly put our destiny in our hands and look for alternatives because the blame game and propaganda would do nobody any good while the PDP should please bury their face in shame for all the squalor.
Let Mr president use his only remaining untainted integrity call everybody to the round table and evolve untainted politicians to lead us forward. Our mentors had failed us if we continue in their mentoring we may be heading into …. God forbid
Solutions lies in Sovereign National Conference with Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Let’s our leaders accept that they have failed us and apologise.
Let’s us start all over again not only in zero budgets but also in zero administration. A holistic overhaul of Nigeria states is required now. We are just suffering ourself for nothing. The dollarisation of the economy before and during the election has led to the scarcity in forex. Let’s leave propaganda, all political parties are culprit and for as long as we want to cover our misdeeds so also we would be running away from the truth. dollars became the instruments of exchange during the pre-election campaign and settlement of bribe. The amount of dollars wasted is enough to stabilise our reserves now. We have now woken from our slumber the rest is history.