A Prosecution witness, on Friday, told an Ikeja High Court, how a former Director General of NIMASA, Patrick Akpobolokemi, requested for N496 million from a former National Security Adviser (NSA) and converted the money to his personal use.
Giving his evidence in chief before Justice Raliatu Adebiyi, the witness Orji Chukwuma, who is an investigating officer with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recalled that the commission received intelligence report of a monumental fraud going on in NIMASA under the leadership of Akpobolokemi, who was the DG of the agency as at that time.
It would be recalled that the EFCC accused Akpobolokemi and others of allegedly stealing over N754, 740,680.00 million belonging to NIMASA.
Akpobolokemi was arraigned alongside Captain Ezekiel Agaba, Ekene Nwakuche, Governor Amechee Juan, Vincent Udoye, Captain Adegboyega Sahib Olopoenia, and a company, Gama Marine Nigeria Limited, on a 13-count charge bordering on stealing the money belonging to NIMASA.
Giving further evidence, the witness said that Akpobolokemi raised a memo to the NSA asking for the said amount while also giving a detailed table showing how the money was meant to be spent.
“After the money was disbursed, the first defendant asked that the money be transferred from the NIMASA account to a Zenith Bank account 1013961926.
“Also, the sum of N318 million was also transferred to the Zenith Bank account which we discovered was used for personal purposes,” he said.
He also told the court that through investigations, it was also discovered that fictitious contracts were awarded to some companies one of which is Arroworld Consulting and Kofa Fadan Nigeria Ltd.. It was also discovered that the companies were paid for bogus contracts which were never executed.
“During investigations, we spent two days searching for the address of the company which we finally located.
“We also discovered that the sum of N11 million was transferred to one Aneke Julie Nkechi. It was discovered that she is related to Lady Captain in NiMASA. She was invited to the EFCC’s office where she claimed that she didn’t know how the money got into her account but later refunded the money to the Commission,” he said.
“One of the defendants Ekene Nwakuche made eight withdrawals of N3 million each through the instruction of Captain Ezekiel Agaba,” he said.
Justice Adebiyi consequently adjourned the matter till November 11 for continuation of trial.
Akpobolokemi is currently facing trial in criminal matters both in the Federal High Court and a the Lagos State High Court brought against him by the EFCC.
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