Attorney General, Abubakar Malami, may be in hot water with Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over the Dr. George Uboh’s N300
billion slush fund recovery drama.
Pointblanknews.com gathered that Malami is currently being investigated on
the orders of President Muhammadu Buhari, over his alleged role in the
transfer of slush funds from the NNPC to various banks by Diezani
Alison-Madueke.
Trouble started for Malami when he a hired Uboh, a convicted felon, in the
US and Nigeria, and his firm, Panic Alert Security System (PASS), without
due diligence, gave him a huge mandate to trace hidden N300 Billion
slush funds in 13 banks. The idea was Uboh’s interestingly.
He told Malami he could help the government trace the funds.
Unknown to the AG, Uboh personally extended his mandate to all banks,
parastatals, agencies and individuals, using the official mandate as cover
to seek sensitive documents account details.
According to Malami, the bubble bust when some rattled individuals and
bank chiefs contacted the AG on the activities of Uboh, and how he was
nosing around the source of slush funds.
Buhari is curious and wants Malami to explain why the AG revoked the
earlier mandate he gave to Uboh to trace stolen , slush funds in banks.
But Pointblanknews.com gathered that Malami allegedly tried to protect
some bank chiefs when he realized Uboh had gone very far in the search for
stolen funds.
It was gathered that some of the bank chiefs, including that of Access
Bank, had asked Malami to stop Uboh from prying into the source of slush
funds in their safe deposit boxes.
Uboh told the Presidents that Malami specifically intervened in the case
of Access bank. He alleged Malami tried to reach him severally through his
PA, but he refused to talk with the AG. And that the AG tried with several
banks and when he could not stop him, he revoked his mandate.
Malami denied “. I did not make, never made and will never make any
alliance with anyone in and outside of the banking industry to frustrate
PASS or any firm from recovering any FGN funds stashed/trapped in the
listed banks or any bank or company in Nigeria or elsewhere”
Curiously, few weeks after Malami stopped Uboh, the top chiefs of three
banks in malami’s list were arrested. The Group Managing Director, of
Access Bank, Herbert Wigwe,was busted over funds laundered through the
bank by officials of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety
Agency (NIMASA).
Some questionable funds located in the bank was also traced to former
Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke. Wigwe allegedly received $5
million that was routed through Zenith Bank.
The Managing Director of Fidelity Bank Plc, Nnamdi Okonkwo, was later
arrested by the EFCC over an alleged $115m received from the immediate
past Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
Few days later the EFCC traced more than $88 million to a hidden account
controlled by the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of
Sterling Bank of Nigeria, Yemi Adeola . The money was transferred to Mr.
Adeola from Fidelity Bank of Nigeria whose managing director, Nnamdi
Okonkwo, was also detained by the EFCC. All men are on bail.
Malami argued that he revoked Uboh’s mandate because aside going beyond
the scope he listed, he was soliciting and/or requesting bank officials
to allow him access to certain encrypted systems in order to enable him
extract relevant information to execute the brief without appreciation of
the security implications of such a delicate venture on Nigeria’s
financial sector and without any prior discussions with and approval from
him.
A source told Pointblanknews.com “ It was a grand conspiracy from the
office of the Attorney general to the office of the Governor of the
Central bank. Yes, Uboh has some shady pasts but if you as AG said
investigate 13 banks and he includes more banks agencies and individuals,
why kick him out. You said the banks were complaining Uboh was asking for
sensitive documents, but Uboh said the banks wanted to cover up the
crimes, who do you believe”
The source said further “Another issue is as the chief law officer of the
state, why give a private individual such assignment without a thorough
background check. You then turn around to say, the banks were complaining
documents he is asking may compromise security because Uboh has a dark
past with credit card fraud, financial crimes”.
Malami had stated in his response to Buhari’s query “I was inundated
with the excesses of Uboh of PASS and later found out that PASS actually
wrote several banks (more than 13 banks), private individuals, corporate
entities (national and multinationals), government agencies and virtually
all FGN ministries soliciting for data, information, official records,
remittances (funds and stocks), and records of whereabouts of all
forfeited assets not yet disposed off by some of the FGN agencies, amongst
other things.
Malami denied he tried to intervene on behalf of the rogue bank chiefs “To
allege that he sent a warning to me through my personal assistant that I
should not call him on Access Bank and that I revoked his engagement
because I could not talk to him is outright falsehood and the fact remains
that I have never ever made an attempt to call him in life at any time
prior to the engagement or thereafter and the idea of passing a warning on
account of my purported call does not arise.”
He said Further “I was inundated with the excesses of Uboh of PASS and
later found out that PASS actually wrote several banks (more than 13
banks), private individuals, corporate entities (national and
multinationals), government agencies and virtually all FGN ministries
soliciting for data, information, official records, remittances (funds and
stocks), and records of whereabouts of all forfeited assets not yet
disposed off by some of the FGN agencies, amongst other things”.
A US court once convicted Mr. Uboh, an older brother of a former member of
the House of Representatives, Doris Uboh, for engaging in credit card
fraud. US authorities had also indicted him for dealing in narcotics, but
the narcotics charges were later dropped.
In 1992, U.S. law enforcement agents carried out a major raid on a credit
card and bank fraud ring led by George Uboh in Georgia. US prosecutors
identified Mr. Uboh as the ringleader of the syndicate. Doris Uboh’s names
appeared as number 7 on the indictment list, and she was charged on four
counts of felony charges. She fled the US to Nigeria, later manipulating
her way into the House of Reps.
The case against the Ubohs and their co-conspirers was assigned docket
number 92-cr-00041-GET-JRS and was listed as USA v. Uboh et al. The Uboh
siblings and 27 others were charged with varying degrees of felonious
fraud.
The case wound through US courts from 1992 to 1998. Though the U.S.
government issued a motion to dismiss the charges with regard to Doris and
others in 1998, the case was re-opened in 1999. However, by that time Ms.
Uboh had fled the U.S. Her flight led U.S. prosecutors to declare her a
“fugitive.”
George Uboh, the serial fraudster who sensationally accused the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission of diverting proceeds of recovered assets
was today convicted and sentenced to three years imprisonment by Justice
S. E. Aladetoyinbo of the Federal Capital Territory High Court Abuja, for
his role in converting the property of the defunct Police Equipment
Foundation for his own use.
Uboh was arraigned by the EFCC on a three-count charge bordered on
Criminal Breach of Trust involving the