EFCC To Charge Ex-NNPC GMD, Yakubu, To Court; Forfeits Recovered Loot
Dr Andrew Yakubu, former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is to be charged to court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on charges of fraud.
The EFCC had, a few days ago, disclosed the recovery of USD9.8m and GBP74,000 from a fire proof safe hidden inside a building in Kaduna said to be owned by Yakubu.
Yakubu did not deny ownership of the monies and explained that they are all gifts and not proceeds from any crime.
Also, a Federal High Court, sitting in Kano, presided over by Justice Zainab Abubakar, has ordered the temporary forfeiture of the recovered funds to the FG.
Justice Abubakar ruled, “That the sums of $9,772,000 and £74,000, which are now in the custody of the applicant (EFCC), are in the interim forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.”
Yakubu, with this development, would lose his place as a witness for the prosecution. He was arrested last year alongside Jide Omokore, the chairman of Atlantic Energy Brass Development Limited and Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited for charges of money laundering and low remittance of proceeds to the FG.
An EFCC detective told The Punch that “Yakubu is accused of failing to make full declaration of his assets when he completed the EFCC Asset Declaration Form A, which is contrary to Section 27(1) of the EFCC (Establishment) Act 2004 and punishable under Section 27(3) of the same Act.”
When asked whether the commission had been able to determine the source of the recovered funds, the detective said investigations, so far, implied that the money, which Yakubu termed ‘gifts’, were kickbacks.
He said, “The fraud at the NNPC is very deep-rooted. There are various aspects of our investigation but so far, we believe that the monies found at Yakubu’s house are kickbacks.”
