Emefiele, Cronies Linked to Seized 753 Abuja Duplexes-EFCC Reveals in Court Papers

Citing Court papers filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the Punch newspaper has revealed that the immediate-past Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, and his acolytes are the big masquerades behind the sprawling Abuja estate with 753 duplexes and other apartments located in the Cadastral Zone area of the nation’s capital.

In the court papers obtained by the Punch, the EFCC reportedly ran a narration that links Emefiele to the sprawling Abuja estate spanning 150,500 square metre, situated at Plot 109, Cadazral Zone C09, Lokogoma District, in the capital city.

The EFCC had set tongues wagging since Monday when it announced the recovery of the property from a top government official but stopped short of naming the person.

That angered many Nigerians who wondered why the anti-graft agency would prefer to shroud the identity of the owners in secrecy rather than naming and shaming them.

The recovery, the biggest since EFCC’s creation by the Obasanjo Administration in 2003, was sequel to a ruling delivered on December 2, 2024 by Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie of the FCT High Court sitting in Apo.

Mr. Emefiele is currently defending himself before three separate judges before whom the EFCC is prosecuting him in three different cases.

For instance, he is standing trial before Justice Hamza Mu’azu for procurement fraud, forgery of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s signature, and other charges.

Secondly, Emefiele is telling Justice Rahman Oshodi at the Special Offences Court in Ikeja, Lagos, all he knows about the hefty fraud allegation involving $4.5bn and N2.8bn respectively, slammed against him by the EFCC.

Thirdly, he is also standing trial before Justice Maryann Anenih of the FCT High Court in Abuja for allegedly approving the printing of N684.5m notes at the cost of N18.96bn.

In the court documents obtained by the Punch newspaper, the EFCC accused Mr. Godwin Emefiele of allegedly committing “monumental fraud” as the CBN governor with his cronies to acquire several properties including the estate.

The anti-graft agency says in the document that: “The commission whilst investigating the alleged monumental fraud carried out by the immediate past Governor of the CBN and his cronies traced and discovered several properties reasonably suspected to have been acquired and or developed with proceeds of unlawful activities.

“The property highlighted in Schedule A to this application is one of the said properties recovered, having been reasonably suspected to have been acquired/ developed with proceeds of unlawful activities.”

The EFCC further   alleged that “in the cause of this investigation, it was revealed that the erstwhile CBN governor negotiated kickbacks in return for allocation of foreign exchange to some companies who were in desperate need of foreign exchange for their lawful and legitimate businesses.

“Our investigation equally revealed that erstwhile CBN Governor received kickbacks from some contractors who were awarded contracts by the Central Bank of Nigeria.”

The anti-graft agency also alleged that Emefiele connived with several cronies, including one Ifeanyi Omeke, who “ran several errands for him, which included purchase and perfection of title documents for several properties located in highbrow areas of Lagos and Abuja.”

The documents for the Abuja property, the EFCC said in the court papers, were recovered during a search of Omeke’s office and that investigators located the property on September 17, 2024 “with the assistance of a surveyor from the Abuja Geographical Information Systems, using search results and coordinate.”

The EFCC also disclosed that its investigation “revealed that the said property has been abandoned and deserted with only a guard manning the said property since June 2023 upon the arrest of the erstwhile CBN Governor. “

The PUNCH reported that the Department of State Services, DSS, arrested Emefiele in Lagos the day after he was suspended from office by President Bola Tinubu.

In October, the EFCC arrested Emefiele in less than an hour after he regained his freedom from the DSS.

The EFCC also revealed that the massive property, allegedly acquired by Emefiele, through cronies, was originally meant for a mass housing development.

The EFCC said its investigation revealed that Emefiele used three companies to pay a total of N2.2bn to buy the property.

It said the seller “received the aggregate sum of N2,200,000,000.00,” adding that “the said three companies used for the payment of the property are enmeshed in criminal maneuvering of layering proceeds of illegal activities of Mr. Godwin Emiefele.”

According to the EFCC, one of the companies was used to pay N900m, the second paid N700m, while the third paid N600m, totalling N2.2bn.

It said the directors of the companies were arrested “and their statements voluntarily obtained in the course of investigation.”

“The funds used in the acquisition of the property highlighted in Schedule A to this application are not legitimate earnings of Godwin Emefiele but funds acquired through illegal and unlawful activities.

“That I know as a fact and verily believe that the source/origin of the funds used in the acquisition and/or development of the properties sought to be forfeited are proceeds of unlawful activities to wit: corrupt enrichment, receiving of gratification or kickbacks and abuse of office,” an EFCC investigator stated in the affidavit filed in court.

The EFCC noted that the court had on November 1, 2024 made an order for the temporary forfeiture of the property “after evaluating facts placed before it.”

It, therefore, urged the judge to order the permanent forfeiture of the property to the Federal Government as no one had come forward to challenge the facts placed before the court, in spite of adverting the interim forfeiture order in The PUNCH edition of November 6, 2024.

According to the EFCC, the court acceded to its request and has now permanently forfeited the property to the Federal Government.

The Punch said all efforts to get the reaction of Emefiele’s legal team were futile. One of the lawyers, Matthew Burkaa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, did not pick calls to his line and had yet to respond to a text message seeking Emefiele’s side of the story as at the time of filing this report.