EFCC Boss, IBRAHIM LAMORDE
A
High Court in Abuja on Thursday granted leave to the Economic Financial
Crimes Commission to seize 108 properties belonging to the six accused
persons involved in the alleged diversion of N32.8bn Police Pension
Fund.
A Permanent Secretary, Atiku Kigo, is
being charged alongside Esai Dangabar, Ahmed Wada, John Yusufu, Veronica
Onyegbula and Sani Zira on 16 counts preferred against them by the
EFCC.
They were accused of complicity in the illegal diversion of the N32.8bn pension fund, a charge they all pleaded not guilty of.
Counsel for the EFCC, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs,
had filed an application before the court in a motion with number
M11005/2012, seeking leave to seize the 108 properties allegedly
belonging to the accused persons.
The EFCC, in pursuance of Section 28 of
the EFCC Act 2004, attached the list of all the assets belonging to
Kigo, Dangabar, Wada, Yusufu, Onyegbula and Zira in the motion.
In his ruling on the motion, Justice
Lawal Gummi granted the interim order for the seizure of the properties,
alleged to be scattered all over Nigeria.
The anti-graft agency said earlier that
the accused persons perpetrated the alleged fraud in Abuja between
January 2009 and June 2011.
The EFCC alleged that the six accused
persons had conspired and sequentially withdrawn monies from the Police
Pension Fund in an account domiciled at First Bank of Nigeria and shared
same among themselves.
According to the EFCC, their offence
borders on conspiracy, fraud and criminal breach of trust and punishable
under sections 97, 315, 115(ii), 119 and 309, of the Penal Code Act
Cap. 532, Laws of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria 2007.
The case has been adjourned till May 28, for continuation of hearing.
The accused, all civil servants, have since been suspended by the Federal Civil Service Commission.
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