Headlines
Alleged N304.1m Fraud: More trouble for ex-NIMASA DG as court admits more evidence
Justice Tijani Ringim of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, on Tuesday, March 14, 2023, admitted in evidence several documents tendered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), against a former acting Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Haruna Baba Jauro, and two others.
Jauro alongside Dr. Dauda Bitrus Bawa and a company, Thlumbau Enterprises Limited, is being prosecuted on a 19-count charge bordering on stealing and money laundering to the tune of N304, 118, 500( Three Hundred and Four Million One Hundred and Eighteen Thousand Five Hundred Naira).
At the resumed sitting, the prosecution presented its third prosecution witness, PW3, Orji Chukwuma, an investigator with the Commission.
Led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, Chukwuma, of the Chairman Monitoring Unit, EFCC, Abuja, told the court that he was Head, of Special Task Force Unit 3, Lagos Zonal Command, at the time of the investigation of the alleged fraud.
When asked if he knew the defendants and the company, Thlumbau Enterprises Limited, the PW3, whose team was tasked with investigating money laundering and other financial crimes, stated that he came across all the defendants in the course of his investigation, upon receipt of intelligence reports against the management of NIMASA.
“Further investigation revealed that proceeds of unlawful activities of the 1st defendant, while he was the Executive Director of Finance and Administration in NIMASA, was concealed and laundered for his benefit through the 3rd defendant.
In his further testimony, Chukwuma told the court that funds co-mingled with loans taken from Aso Savings Limited to also acquire two other houses in Lagos.
He also stated that the names mentioned are children and relations of the 1st defendant and that their addresses are the same as his.
They were all admitted and marked as exhibits B, B1 and B2 by the court. During the proceedings, the prosecution counsel also asked the witness if there was an exchange of correspondence regarding the Aso Savings loans he earlier talked about, to which he answered in the affirmative, adding that it contained the mandate, statement of account, certificate of identification and mortgage correspondence of the first defendant.
While giving further testimony about exhibit A and some entries made on January 6,,2014, Chukwuma explained that there was an inflow of N15m ( Fifteen Million Naira) that came from the Committee of Intelligence belonging to NIMASA.
He said: “The Committee is set up and funded by NIMASA for specific purposes related to security.
“Investigations showed, from the account statement of January 23, 2014, that the sum of N12m (Twelve Million Naira) out of the N15m (Fifteen Million) was transferred to the account of the first defendant in Aso Savings to manage the loans he took to buy property.
“On July 10, 2014, another sum of N20m (Twenty Million Naira) was also paid into the account of the third defendant.
“Subsequently, the 2nd defendant also benefited the sum of N1, 470,000(One million Four Hundred and Seventy Thousand Naira), which was later returned to the Commission in a draft.”
When he was shown copies of the draft by the prosecution counsel, he identified them as the statement of one Ishaq Banabas, who returned the total sum of N35m (Thirty-five Million Naira) through five different bank drafts to the EFCC Draft Registration Form Receipt.
The drafts as well as the EFCC Draft Registration Form receipt were admitted in evidence and marked as exhibits D and D1, respectively.
The 3rd defendant’s account, according to him, was co-mingled and aggregated to the sum of N52m (Fifty-two Million Naira) paid to one Helen Mbonu, who used it to purchase a house for the first defendant.
Asked if the third defendant rendered any services that led to the various cash payments totaling N120m, the witness told the court that the 3rd defendant never rendered any services, adding that “the payments are proceeds of unlawful activities.”
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May Day: Mobereola salutes maritime workers for passion, dedication to building virile industry
Gloria Odion, Maritime reporter
“Thank you for your dedication and invaluable contributions”.
He emphasized that as a regulator, the Agency remains committed to its oversight function of regulating maritime labour activities in the industry in line with extant instruments and the expectations of the theme of the 2026 Workers’ Day, which focuses on safety, dignity and productivity.
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