Justice Chuka Obiozor of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos yesterday ordered the freezing of three bank accounts allegedly linked to the Lagos State government and former governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, over an alleged N9.9 billion fraud.
He ordered the suspension of the accounts pending the conclusion of investigation and possible prosecution of the permanent secretary in the office of the chief of staff to the former governor, Mr. Adewale Adesanya,
Spokesman for the EFCC, Mr. Tony Orilade, confirmed the freezing order in a statement titled, ‘EFCC secures freezing order on accounts linked to ex-Gov. Ambode over Alleged N9.9bn fraud.’
The accounts are domiciled in First City Monument Bank (numbered 5617984012), Access Bank (0060949275) and Zenith Bank (1011691254).
In a supporting affidavit, an EFCC investigator, Kungmi Daniel, said the commission discovered huge inflow of N9, 927,714,443.29 from the state accounts into the FCMB account.
Obiozor ordered the temporary freezing of the accounts following an ex parte application brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
According to the EFCC, N9.9 billion was paid from the state government’s accounts into the FCMB account opened on September 17, 2018, and operated by Adesanya.
It urged the court to freeze the account pending the conclusion of their investigation and possible prosecution of Adesanya.
In an affidavit filed in support of the ex parte application, a member of the EFCC investigation team, Mr. Kungmi Daniel, said the schedule of the FCMB account showed how Adesanya and the other signatories to the account made fraudulent fund transfers into the account from the accounts of the Lagos State government.
“The trend in the account is that the account always witnessed huge inflow from Lagos State Government in the above-scheduled accounts managed by the respondent (Adesanya),” said EFCC.
He said the commission received intelligence on the transfers, analysed it, and found it worthy of investigation.
The EFCC prayed the court to grant it an order to temporarily attach and take over the accounts to enable it to conclude its investigations.
“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,” said EFCC.
The judge, after listening to the EFCC’s lawyer, Mohammed Abbas, ordered the ”suspension” of the accounts and adjourned till September 9.
