Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke sitting in Federal High Court, Ikoyi on Tuesday, adjourned till October 15, for hearing of all applications relating to N20 billion bail out loan allegedly belonging to Kogi State government, said to have been warehoused by Sterling Bank Plc.
The adjournment was sequel to the application made by counsel to Kogi State government, Professor Sam Erogbo (SAN), who told the court that he needed time to study the counter affidavit filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to the processes.
It would be recalled that Justice Tijjani Ringim had on August 31, while granting an ex-parte application for an interim forfeiture of the sum of N19,333,333,333.36 billion, said to be warehoused in Sterling Bank account number 0073572696.
Justice Ringim made the order of the interim forfeiture after taken arguments from the EFCC’s counsel, Abbas Muhammed.
In asking the court for the order, Abbas told the court that the application was brought pursuant to section 44(2) of the Constitution and section 34(1) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act and under the inherent jurisdiction of the court. Adding that the interim order was necessary so as to preserve the ‘Res’ and abate further dissipation of the funds in the account.
The EFCC in its 13-paragraph affidavit in support of the ex-parte summons deposed to by a member of a team of investigators attached to the Chairman Monitoring Unit Lagos of the EFCC, stated that the Commission received a credible and direct intelligence which led to the tracing of funds reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities warehoused in account No. 0073572696 domiciled in Sterling Bank Plc with the name Kogi State Salary Bailout Account
He said the Commission acted on the said intelligence and assigned same to the Chairman Monitoring Unit, where it was discovered that on April 1, 2019 the management of Sterling Bank Plc approved an offer of N20,000,000,000.00 bailout loan facility for Kogi State Government.
According to the deponent, on the June 19, 2019 fiscal year, the Kogi State Government, Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, office of the Honourable Commissioner, applied for credit facility of N20,000,000,000, with an interest rate of 9 percent for a tenure of 240 months from Sterling Bank Plc”.
He added that the said facility was meant to augment the salary payment and running cost of the State Government.
He stated further that on June 26, 2019 the credit facility offer was accepted vide a memorandum of acceptance signed by the His Excellency, Yahaya Bello, the Executive Governor of Kogi State, Asiwaju Asiru idris, the Commissioner of Finance Kogi State and one Alhaji Momoh Jibrin, Accountant General, Kogi State.
He stated that prior to the said application for loan, Kogi State Government on the 19th June, 2019 vide a letter to the Manager Sterling Bank Plc, Lokoja applied for an account opening in the Bank with the name Kogi State Salary Bailout Account with Alhaji Momoh Jubril, accountant General of the State and Elijah Evinemi Ag. Director Treasury as the signatories to the said account. Attached and marked exhibit EFCC 04 is a copy of the said letter.
“That upon the opening of the said account with No. 0072969301, Sterling bank Plc disbursed salary intervention loan to the tune of N20,000,000,000.00 to the account.
“That rather than used the intervention funds for the purpose for which it was granted, the State Government proceeded to open a fix deposit account No. 0073572696.
“That on the 25th day of July, 2019 Sterling Bank Plc acting on the instruction of the Kogi State Government transferred the money from the loan account and placed same on aforementioned fixed deposit account.
“That the said account sought to be frozen received the sum of N20,000,000,000 on the 25th July of 2019.
“That as at the 1st day of April, 2021 the balance standing to the credit of the said fixed deposit account was N19,333,333,333.36 billion
“That we are still tracing what the sum of N666,666,666.64 billion, has been deducted from the said funds and were not used for the payment of the salary.
“That the Commission has the statutory mandate to prevent the commission of economic and financial crimes within the shores of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“That investigation in this matter is still ongoing and this application is pertinent to secure the funds in the said account to prevent them from being totally dissipated. Adding that without freezing the nominated accounts, there is no better way of preserving res”.
Upon listened to the counsel’s submissions, Justice Ringim granted the request and ordered the EFCC to publish the order in a national newspaper and made quarterly report to the court on the progress of it’s investigation.
At the resumed hearing of the matter today, before Justice Aneke’s court, where the matter was reassigned to, counsel to Kogi State government, Professor Erogbo (SAN) told the court that his client has filed process against the interim order granted by Justice Ringim, and that the EFCC have equally filed counter to the processes.
Erogbo (SAN) told the court that he needed time to respond to the EFCC’s counter.
Consequently, he asked the court for a short date.
Counsel to the EFCC, Rotimi Oyedepo, admitted been served with the processes and that he has equally filed counter to such.
Following the adjournment request of the Kogi State counsel, Justice Aneke, adjourned the matter till October 15, for hearing of all applications.
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