By
SOUTHSOUTH leader Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark will be sad today if former governors James Ibori is sentenced. He, however, said he will not regret the development as it will server as deterrent to those with corruption tendencies in Delta. According to him, corruption is the greatest canker worm that have eating deep into the nation.
Clark, who spoke yesterday in his country Kiagbodo home, in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State, told reporters that lbori’s criminal attitude has brought bad image to the state.
He said there was no way Nigeria can grow or develop because corruption has taken over in the judiciary and every sector of government, noting that corruption has become an industry which some concerned Nigerians have been trying to eradicate.
According to the elder statesman, Ibori would not have walked his way into trouble if he had not tried to become a power broker after leaving the office.
Clark said: “It was when lbori started to parade himself as a celebrity on the corridor of power during the administration of former president, the late Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua’s and part of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that we said no, this should not happen. And he even wanted to be the president, the whole issue amounted to his own attitude and he never stopped stealing even after he left office.
“lbori was still stealing from Delta state because after he left office his brother was still there. So, whatever he could not complete then, he was completing under his brother and there are many cases of such only that we do not want to embarrass the present government.”
On whether if the monies that were stolen by the lbori’s administration will be safe if they are return to the state government, Clark said that the funds stolen by the ex-governor and the property should be return to the state since they are still around.
“Since we are around nobody will tamper with the funds as we will see to it that they used for the development of state. So, we are not afraid and not worried, let the funds be brought to us.
“Those of us who fault for the conviction of lbori are still around and we don’t believe the present government will do anything to give the impression that he doesn’t want Delta to benefit from the money that belongs to it.
“We will monitor it because the money is coming through the Federal Government and at that stage we will ask the Federal Government to announce what came so that it will not be treated like General Abacha’s looted money.”
Clark lamented that Delta state has received more than since lbori and the present governor came into power, but yet there are no meaningful development or completed projects and even the Asaba Airport which is so vital to this state has not been completed, not even the Asaba/Ughelli dual carriage road that has been abandoned.
Tuesday, 17 April 2012
Ibori gets his prize today
By 
All eyes are on the London's Southwark Crown Court, where former Delta State Governor James Onanefe Ibori will get his prize for a life of fraud. He will be sentenced.
In February, he admitted stealing tens of millions of pounds from the oil-rich Delta State so much that he became known as the ‘oil sheik’.
Less than two decades after he worked as an employee at the DIY store and few years after quitting his £5,000-a-year job as a cashier for Wickes, Ibori had become one of Nigeria’s most influential and richest politicians.
Before his emergence as governor, he was an ally of the military regime of the late Gen. Sani Abacha. Not much was known of his life before his romance with the Abacha regime through Maj. Hamza al-Mustapha, Abacha’s Chief Secretary Officer (CSO). But not anymore. His story, from his days as s store keeper in the United Kingdom, to the time he returned home and his tenure as governor are now open books, being read by all. It is now an open secret that he used a false date of birth to conceal previous convictions in the United Kingdom when he ran for governorship.
Antony Goldman, a journalist who worked in Nigeria, said Ibori offered services to Abacha. Goldman said: “He had an unspecified role in security. That could be anything, it was a very murky business.”
He said in the mid-1990s, Ibori was questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in the United States (US) about how he came into the possession of millions of dollars that he transferred to accounts in the US.
The FBI, he said, suspected the money came from advance fee fraud and was able to prove the money came from his work with Abacha.
Ibori, whose address in England was given as Primrose Hill in North London, worked as a cashier in a branch of a DIY store in Ruislip, Middlesex and was found guilty of stealing goods from the Wickes store. He was caught by his employer allowing his wife, Theresa, walk through the till he was manning without paying for goods. They both pleaded guilty at Isleworth Crown Court and were fined. In 1992, he was convicted for possession of a stolen credit card, which had £1,000 spent on it, and was again fined.
He knew his past could catch up with him. So, in 1999, when Ibori took out a mortgage on a property in Abbey Road, London, he got a new passport with a false birth date to mask his previous convictions. The birth date he chose was only a month after his sister’s birthday, which the prosecution told the court was medically impossible. He paid off the house immediately he became governor.
The decision of the court today will help the British government decide what to do with Ibori’s multi-billion naira assets in the UK. Will they be confiscated or returned to Nigeria? Today’s judjment will determine. His eralier guilty plea to charges of conspiracy to defraud lessened the burden of the court.
Ibori, 49, admitted stealing money from Delta State and laundering it in London through a number of offshore companies. Ibori admitted to fraud totalling more than $79 million, said to be part of total embezzlement that could exceed $250 milion.
Investigation revealed he bought six properties in London, including a six-bedroom house with indoor pool in Hampstead for £2.2 million and a flat opposite the nearby Abbey Road recording studios.
He also bought a property in Dorset, a £3.2 million mansion in South Africa and further real estate in Nigeria.
Prosecution said he owned a fleet of armoured Range Rovers costing £600,000 and a £120,000 Bentley. On one of his several trips to London, he was said to have bought a Mercedes Maybach for over £300,000 at a dealer on Park Lane and shipped it to South Africa.
He also bought a private jet for £12million, spent £126,000 a month on his credit cards and ran up a £15,000 bill for a two-day stay at the Lanesborough hotel in London.
Prosecutor Sasha Wass told the court Ibori had accepted he was involved in “wide-scale theft, fraud and corruption when he was governor of Delta State”.
Wass added: “Mr Ibori tricked his way into public office. He had tricked the Nigerian authorities and the Nigerian voters. He was thus never the legitimate governor of Delta State. He was never the legitimate governor and there was effectively a thief in government house. As the pretender of that public office, he was able to plunder Delta State’s wealth and hand out patronage.”
Detective Inspector Paul Whatmore of the Metropolitan Police said: “We are pleased with today’s guilty pleas which mark the culmination of a seven-year inquiry into James Ibori’s corrupt activities. We will now be actively seeking the confiscation of all of his stolen assets so they can be repatriated for the benefit of the people of Delta State.
“It is always rewarding for anyone working on a proceeds of corruption case to know that the stolen funds they identify will eventually be returned to some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world.”
Prosecution said as governor, Ibori racked up credit card bills of $200,000 monthly and owned a fleet of armoured Range Rovers. He was trying to buy a plane for £20 million at the time he was arrested.
The ex-governor’s wife, Theresa, sister, Christine Ibori-Idie, mistress, Udoamaka Okoronkwo, and London-based solicitor Bhadresh Gohil were earlier convicted of money-laundering.
His ‘travail’ was funded by the Britain’s Department for International Development (DfID) at a cost of approximately £750,000 a year. The Metropolitan Police’s Proceeds of Corruption unit (POCU) began investigating Ibori in 2005, collaborating with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC).
He was arrested by the EFCC in December 2007, but two years later a court in Asaba, dismissed the charges, saying there was not enough evidence. The case was reopened in April 2010; Ibori fled to Dubai United Arab Emirate (UDE) where he was detained at the request of the Metropolitan Police and extradited to the UK last April.
Britain’s International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said: “We are committed to rooting out corruption wherever it is undermining development, and will help bring its perpetrators like Ibori to justice and return stolen funds to help the world’s poorest.
Mitchell said: “Funding investigations such as these help to recover valuable stolen funds which can be returned to Nigeria to be used for development. Doing this is making a major contribution to Nigeria’s development, on a scale far in excess of the cost of the investigation itself. It is good value for Nigeria and for the British taxpayer.”
Ibori
Since he left the Government House, Asaba on May 29, 2007 as a two-term governor of Delta State, James Onanefe Ibori has been facing corruption-related litigations. Though he was discharged and acquitted of all corruption charges by a Federal High Court sitting in Asaba, it has been a different ball game at a London Southwark Crown Court, where he pleaded guilty to money laundering charges. The court will today sentence Ibori, writes OLUKOREDE YISHAU
All eyes are on the London's Southwark Crown Court, where former Delta State Governor James Onanefe Ibori will get his prize for a life of fraud. He will be sentenced.
In February, he admitted stealing tens of millions of pounds from the oil-rich Delta State so much that he became known as the ‘oil sheik’.
Less than two decades after he worked as an employee at the DIY store and few years after quitting his £5,000-a-year job as a cashier for Wickes, Ibori had become one of Nigeria’s most influential and richest politicians.
Before his emergence as governor, he was an ally of the military regime of the late Gen. Sani Abacha. Not much was known of his life before his romance with the Abacha regime through Maj. Hamza al-Mustapha, Abacha’s Chief Secretary Officer (CSO). But not anymore. His story, from his days as s store keeper in the United Kingdom, to the time he returned home and his tenure as governor are now open books, being read by all. It is now an open secret that he used a false date of birth to conceal previous convictions in the United Kingdom when he ran for governorship.
Antony Goldman, a journalist who worked in Nigeria, said Ibori offered services to Abacha. Goldman said: “He had an unspecified role in security. That could be anything, it was a very murky business.”
He said in the mid-1990s, Ibori was questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in the United States (US) about how he came into the possession of millions of dollars that he transferred to accounts in the US.
The FBI, he said, suspected the money came from advance fee fraud and was able to prove the money came from his work with Abacha.
Ibori, whose address in England was given as Primrose Hill in North London, worked as a cashier in a branch of a DIY store in Ruislip, Middlesex and was found guilty of stealing goods from the Wickes store. He was caught by his employer allowing his wife, Theresa, walk through the till he was manning without paying for goods. They both pleaded guilty at Isleworth Crown Court and were fined. In 1992, he was convicted for possession of a stolen credit card, which had £1,000 spent on it, and was again fined.
He knew his past could catch up with him. So, in 1999, when Ibori took out a mortgage on a property in Abbey Road, London, he got a new passport with a false birth date to mask his previous convictions. The birth date he chose was only a month after his sister’s birthday, which the prosecution told the court was medically impossible. He paid off the house immediately he became governor.
The decision of the court today will help the British government decide what to do with Ibori’s multi-billion naira assets in the UK. Will they be confiscated or returned to Nigeria? Today’s judjment will determine. His eralier guilty plea to charges of conspiracy to defraud lessened the burden of the court.
Ibori, 49, admitted stealing money from Delta State and laundering it in London through a number of offshore companies. Ibori admitted to fraud totalling more than $79 million, said to be part of total embezzlement that could exceed $250 milion.
Investigation revealed he bought six properties in London, including a six-bedroom house with indoor pool in Hampstead for £2.2 million and a flat opposite the nearby Abbey Road recording studios.
He also bought a property in Dorset, a £3.2 million mansion in South Africa and further real estate in Nigeria.
Prosecution said he owned a fleet of armoured Range Rovers costing £600,000 and a £120,000 Bentley. On one of his several trips to London, he was said to have bought a Mercedes Maybach for over £300,000 at a dealer on Park Lane and shipped it to South Africa.
He also bought a private jet for £12million, spent £126,000 a month on his credit cards and ran up a £15,000 bill for a two-day stay at the Lanesborough hotel in London.
Prosecutor Sasha Wass told the court Ibori had accepted he was involved in “wide-scale theft, fraud and corruption when he was governor of Delta State”.
Wass added: “Mr Ibori tricked his way into public office. He had tricked the Nigerian authorities and the Nigerian voters. He was thus never the legitimate governor of Delta State. He was never the legitimate governor and there was effectively a thief in government house. As the pretender of that public office, he was able to plunder Delta State’s wealth and hand out patronage.”
Detective Inspector Paul Whatmore of the Metropolitan Police said: “We are pleased with today’s guilty pleas which mark the culmination of a seven-year inquiry into James Ibori’s corrupt activities. We will now be actively seeking the confiscation of all of his stolen assets so they can be repatriated for the benefit of the people of Delta State.
“It is always rewarding for anyone working on a proceeds of corruption case to know that the stolen funds they identify will eventually be returned to some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world.”
Prosecution said as governor, Ibori racked up credit card bills of $200,000 monthly and owned a fleet of armoured Range Rovers. He was trying to buy a plane for £20 million at the time he was arrested.
The ex-governor’s wife, Theresa, sister, Christine Ibori-Idie, mistress, Udoamaka Okoronkwo, and London-based solicitor Bhadresh Gohil were earlier convicted of money-laundering.
His ‘travail’ was funded by the Britain’s Department for International Development (DfID) at a cost of approximately £750,000 a year. The Metropolitan Police’s Proceeds of Corruption unit (POCU) began investigating Ibori in 2005, collaborating with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC).
He was arrested by the EFCC in December 2007, but two years later a court in Asaba, dismissed the charges, saying there was not enough evidence. The case was reopened in April 2010; Ibori fled to Dubai United Arab Emirate (UDE) where he was detained at the request of the Metropolitan Police and extradited to the UK last April.
Britain’s International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said: “We are committed to rooting out corruption wherever it is undermining development, and will help bring its perpetrators like Ibori to justice and return stolen funds to help the world’s poorest.
Mitchell said: “Funding investigations such as these help to recover valuable stolen funds which can be returned to Nigeria to be used for development. Doing this is making a major contribution to Nigeria’s development, on a scale far in excess of the cost of the investigation itself. It is good value for Nigeria and for the British taxpayer.”
US candidate Kim is World Bank president
By 
American Jim Yong Kim was last night named as World Bank President. The Dartmouth College’s president was picked after an unprecedented competition against nominees from Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from Nigeria and Dr. Jose Ochampo from Columbia, who withdrew at the last minute.
The bank board confirmed the decision in a statement. Kim will now be the institution’s 12th president to succeed Robert Zoellick when his five-year term ends in June.The Board expressed its deep gratitude for Mr Zoellick’s outstanding leadership and his dedication to reducing poverty in its member countries, the core mandate of the World Bank Group.
A statement by the World Bank said: "The Executive Directors followed the new selection process agreed in 2011 which, for the first time in the Bank’s history, yielded multiple nominees. This process included an open nomination where any national of the Bank’s membership could be proposed by any Executive Director or Governor, publication of the names of the candidates, interviews of the candidates by the Executive Directors, and final selection of the President."
It added: "We, the Executive Directors, wish to express our deep appreciation to all the nominees, Jim Yong Kim, José Antonio Ocampo and Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Their candidacies enriched the discussion of the role of the President and of the World Bank Group’s future direction. The final nominees received support from different member countries, which reflected the high calibre of the candidates. We all look forward to working with Dr. Kim when he assumes his responsibilities.
"Dr. Jim Yong Kim is currently President of Dartmouth College. A U.S. national. He is a co-founder of Partners in Health (PIH) and a former director of the Department of HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organisation (WHO). Before assuming the Dartmouth presidency, Dr. Kim held professorships at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. He also served as chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and director of the François Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health."
In a statement after his election, Dr. Kim said he had spoken with Okonjo-Iweala and Prof. Ocampo. He said they have both made important contributions to economic development, and I look forward to drawing on their expertise in the years to come.
Meanwhile,President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has congratulated Dr. kim on his election as the new President of the World Bank. President Jonathan also thanked the leaders, governments, peoples and friends of developing countries, as well as the media and other civil society groups, for the support and encouragement given to Dr. Okonjo-Iweala.
Okonjo-Iweala, who had earlier said she was pressured to withdraw from the race but she declined, also congratulated Dr Kim on his election as the World Bank President.
She said she looked forward to working with Dr Kim and would support him, staff and stakeholders of the World Bank Group for the benefit of poor people around the world, "their plight is at the heart of the mandate of the institution and we must never lose sight of that."
On the selection process, she insisted that "we need to make it more open, transparent and merit-based to make sure we do not contribute to a democratic deficit in global governance."
Jim Yong Kim
• Promises to draw on Nigerian, Columbian candidates’ expertise • Jonathan, Okonjo-Iweala congratulate him
American Jim Yong Kim was last night named as World Bank President. The Dartmouth College’s president was picked after an unprecedented competition against nominees from Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from Nigeria and Dr. Jose Ochampo from Columbia, who withdrew at the last minute.
The bank board confirmed the decision in a statement. Kim will now be the institution’s 12th president to succeed Robert Zoellick when his five-year term ends in June.The Board expressed its deep gratitude for Mr Zoellick’s outstanding leadership and his dedication to reducing poverty in its member countries, the core mandate of the World Bank Group.
A statement by the World Bank said: "The Executive Directors followed the new selection process agreed in 2011 which, for the first time in the Bank’s history, yielded multiple nominees. This process included an open nomination where any national of the Bank’s membership could be proposed by any Executive Director or Governor, publication of the names of the candidates, interviews of the candidates by the Executive Directors, and final selection of the President."
It added: "We, the Executive Directors, wish to express our deep appreciation to all the nominees, Jim Yong Kim, José Antonio Ocampo and Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Their candidacies enriched the discussion of the role of the President and of the World Bank Group’s future direction. The final nominees received support from different member countries, which reflected the high calibre of the candidates. We all look forward to working with Dr. Kim when he assumes his responsibilities.
"Dr. Jim Yong Kim is currently President of Dartmouth College. A U.S. national. He is a co-founder of Partners in Health (PIH) and a former director of the Department of HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organisation (WHO). Before assuming the Dartmouth presidency, Dr. Kim held professorships at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. He also served as chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and director of the François Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health."
In a statement after his election, Dr. Kim said he had spoken with Okonjo-Iweala and Prof. Ocampo. He said they have both made important contributions to economic development, and I look forward to drawing on their expertise in the years to come.
Meanwhile,President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has congratulated Dr. kim on his election as the new President of the World Bank. President Jonathan also thanked the leaders, governments, peoples and friends of developing countries, as well as the media and other civil society groups, for the support and encouragement given to Dr. Okonjo-Iweala.
Okonjo-Iweala, who had earlier said she was pressured to withdraw from the race but she declined, also congratulated Dr Kim on his election as the World Bank President.
She said she looked forward to working with Dr Kim and would support him, staff and stakeholders of the World Bank Group for the benefit of poor people around the world, "their plight is at the heart of the mandate of the institution and we must never lose sight of that."
On the selection process, she insisted that "we need to make it more open, transparent and merit-based to make sure we do not contribute to a democratic deficit in global governance."
N26b Police pension cash in five banks
By 
The Senate Committee probing the funds’ management also heard yesterday that the Chairman, Pension Reform Task Team, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina, spends over N9 million monthly on security.
As the Senator Aloysius Etok-led investigative panel on Management of Pension Funds resumed sitting, seven bank chief executives appeared before the committee to clarify the allegation that some banks were conduit pipes to launder pension cash.
Director, Police Pension Office, Mr. Toyin Ishola, who disclosed the whereabouts of the controversial police pension funds, gave the breakdown of the amount traced to the five banks.
He listed Fidelity Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), ECO Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) and First Bank as the banks the funds were domiciled.
Ishola said that Fidelity Bank, UBA and Ecobank each holds N8billion. GTB has N2billion and First Bank N10 billion.
He said the Police Pension Office was working hard to locate N6 billion balance.
Only the Executive Director of Ecobank, Mr. Segun Jafia, who represented his bank, disputed the N3billion said to have been deposited in his bank.
Though Jafia agreed that Ecobank is one of the bankers of the police pensioners, he said the bank is only a paying bank. He admitted that N4 billion was paid into the police pension for payment of pensioners.
Jafia noted that the money had gone into paying police pensioners, leaving a balance of N200 million.
The Ecobank ED said the bank is one of the bankers of the Head of Service pension office.
Diamond Bank Acting Managing Director Mr. Oladele Akinyemi said it was not possible to give one account number to more than one person.
He said his bank does not have any codified account or any account with the name “Chairman”.
The committee mandated the bank to furnish it with details of the accounts of Police Pension, Head of Service, Custom, Immigration and Prisons Pension Office (CIPPO).
GTB Managing Director Mr. Segun Agbaje told the committee that the police pension account was opened on April 6, 2011, with a deposit of N3billion and closed on June 30, 2011.
He told the panelists that the Accountant General’s letter of authorisation to open the account was received on March 2, 2011.
Agbaje said N3billion was deposit placement done in a person’s name and withdrawal usually done by the same person.
He said the money came in form of Electronic Fund Transfer.
The GTB boss said N2b was later transferred to Ecobank on instruction.
Agbaje said the interest accrued to the account was N924,000.
He said the bank was directed on June 30, 2011 to close the account and transfer the money to a new account. The balance in the account is N1.1 billion.
Executive Director of First Bank, Kehinde Lawanson, said the bank was asked to reconcile 14 accounts.
Lawanson said FirstBank found out that five accounts were duplicated.
He added that essentially “we are dealing with nine accounts”.
On whether the bank assigned one account number to four individuals, Lawanson noted that “it is extremely improbable to give one account number to more than one person”.
On some deposits which the committee described as “unusual lodgments” totalling about N44.9 million, Lawanson said if it discovered any form of unusual lodgment of funds, the bank has a procedure to report to the appropriate authorities as specified in the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
He said his bank reported unusual lodgments whenever applicable.
He explained that in the case of Electronic Fund Transfer, once the account number and code are correct, it becomes automatic credit.
Fidelity Bank Executive Director I. K. Mbagwu told the committee that the bank received a request from the Police Reform Task Team to open an account on August 9, 2011 and N6 billion was lodged.
Mbagwu who said the money is still with the bank.
The banker described the account as a “memorandum account”, saying it existed as a “memorandum account” until the authorisation to open the account came from the Accountant General’s office.
He said the account became active only when the Accountant General’s office authorised its opening on August 17, 2011.
Mbagwu said N2billion was paid into the account on August 17, leaving a balance of N8 billion.
On the claim by the Pension Reform Task Team that it recovered N31 billion, he noted that N31 billion could not have been recovered since the money was in the Police Pension account.
Former Head of Service Prof. Afolabi Oladapo also said it was a false claim for the Pension Task Team to have said that it recovered six million pounds.
He said: “It was a false claim to say that six million pounds was recovered. Nothing was recovered because nothing was lost in the first place.”
He said the six million pounds was an investment account domiciled in the United Kingdom.
On the security of the Pension Reform Task Team leader, Maina, Ishola said they were told that Maina made himself inaccessible to pensioners by the surrounding himself with over 42 security agents drawn from the riot police, State Security Service (SSS), the Customs and Prisons Service.
Ishola said they were also told that Maina spends over N9 million monthly on security.
Chairman, Pension Reform Task Team, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina
Of the N32billion Police Pension Fund cash, N26 billion has been traced to five banks.The Senate Committee probing the funds’ management also heard yesterday that the Chairman, Pension Reform Task Team, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina, spends over N9 million monthly on security.
As the Senator Aloysius Etok-led investigative panel on Management of Pension Funds resumed sitting, seven bank chief executives appeared before the committee to clarify the allegation that some banks were conduit pipes to launder pension cash.
Director, Police Pension Office, Mr. Toyin Ishola, who disclosed the whereabouts of the controversial police pension funds, gave the breakdown of the amount traced to the five banks.
He listed Fidelity Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), ECO Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) and First Bank as the banks the funds were domiciled.
Ishola said that Fidelity Bank, UBA and Ecobank each holds N8billion. GTB has N2billion and First Bank N10 billion.
He said the Police Pension Office was working hard to locate N6 billion balance.
Only the Executive Director of Ecobank, Mr. Segun Jafia, who represented his bank, disputed the N3billion said to have been deposited in his bank.
Though Jafia agreed that Ecobank is one of the bankers of the police pensioners, he said the bank is only a paying bank. He admitted that N4 billion was paid into the police pension for payment of pensioners.
Jafia noted that the money had gone into paying police pensioners, leaving a balance of N200 million.
The Ecobank ED said the bank is one of the bankers of the Head of Service pension office.
Diamond Bank Acting Managing Director Mr. Oladele Akinyemi said it was not possible to give one account number to more than one person.
He said his bank does not have any codified account or any account with the name “Chairman”.
The committee mandated the bank to furnish it with details of the accounts of Police Pension, Head of Service, Custom, Immigration and Prisons Pension Office (CIPPO).
GTB Managing Director Mr. Segun Agbaje told the committee that the police pension account was opened on April 6, 2011, with a deposit of N3billion and closed on June 30, 2011.
He told the panelists that the Accountant General’s letter of authorisation to open the account was received on March 2, 2011.
Agbaje said N3billion was deposit placement done in a person’s name and withdrawal usually done by the same person.
He said the money came in form of Electronic Fund Transfer.
The GTB boss said N2b was later transferred to Ecobank on instruction.
Agbaje said the interest accrued to the account was N924,000.
He said the bank was directed on June 30, 2011 to close the account and transfer the money to a new account. The balance in the account is N1.1 billion.
Executive Director of First Bank, Kehinde Lawanson, said the bank was asked to reconcile 14 accounts.
Lawanson said FirstBank found out that five accounts were duplicated.
He added that essentially “we are dealing with nine accounts”.
On whether the bank assigned one account number to four individuals, Lawanson noted that “it is extremely improbable to give one account number to more than one person”.
On some deposits which the committee described as “unusual lodgments” totalling about N44.9 million, Lawanson said if it discovered any form of unusual lodgment of funds, the bank has a procedure to report to the appropriate authorities as specified in the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
He said his bank reported unusual lodgments whenever applicable.
He explained that in the case of Electronic Fund Transfer, once the account number and code are correct, it becomes automatic credit.
Fidelity Bank Executive Director I. K. Mbagwu told the committee that the bank received a request from the Police Reform Task Team to open an account on August 9, 2011 and N6 billion was lodged.
Mbagwu who said the money is still with the bank.
The banker described the account as a “memorandum account”, saying it existed as a “memorandum account” until the authorisation to open the account came from the Accountant General’s office.
He said the account became active only when the Accountant General’s office authorised its opening on August 17, 2011.
Mbagwu said N2billion was paid into the account on August 17, leaving a balance of N8 billion.
On the claim by the Pension Reform Task Team that it recovered N31 billion, he noted that N31 billion could not have been recovered since the money was in the Police Pension account.
Former Head of Service Prof. Afolabi Oladapo also said it was a false claim for the Pension Task Team to have said that it recovered six million pounds.
He said: “It was a false claim to say that six million pounds was recovered. Nothing was recovered because nothing was lost in the first place.”
He said the six million pounds was an investment account domiciled in the United Kingdom.
On the security of the Pension Reform Task Team leader, Maina, Ishola said they were told that Maina made himself inaccessible to pensioners by the surrounding himself with over 42 security agents drawn from the riot police, State Security Service (SSS), the Customs and Prisons Service.
Ishola said they were also told that Maina spends over N9 million monthly on security.
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