. Says defendants received N264m from former Petroleum Minister for 2015 Elections
By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
Senior Correspondent
The Federal High Court, Lagos on Wednesday, June 28 heard that Managing Director of Fidelity Bank, Nnamdi Okonkwo, actually held a meeting with the former minister of petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Alison –Madueke on how to disburse the $115million warehoused in the bank to be paid out to some officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the purposes of the 2015 election.
Timothy Olaobaju, Fidelity Bank’s Head of Operations who had his day in the court and served as prosecution witness, testified before Justice Mohammed Idris that two INEC employees, Christian Nwosu and Yisa Adedoyin, received N264million from Mrs. Alison-Madueke to rig the 2015 general election results.
Olaobaju made the revelation while being led in evidence by prosecution counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo in the trial of Nwosu and Tijani Inda Bashir in the matter involving the Mrs. Alison-Madueke, Okonkwo and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
According to the witness, the money was paid to Nwosu and Adedoyin in cash.
The defendants were arraigned by the EFCC for allegedly receiving bribe from the former minister.
When the charge was first read to them, Adedoyin had pleaded guilty to the charge and was convicted following a plea bargain arrangement.
Olaobaju, who was head of operations of Fidelity Bank in Illorin, the Kwara State capital, told the court that he paid Nwosu and Adedoyin the money in cash according to instructions of Mrs. Alison-Madueke.
Said Olaobaju: “I was the Head of Operations for Ilorin Branch. I had cause to meet Nwosu and Adedoyin. Sometime in 2015, there was a meeting between our Managing Director and former Petroleum Minister during which she explained that some companies and individuals would come to the bank to pay some money into some accounts.
“The companies were Northern Belt Ltd, Actus Integrated Ltd, Midwestern Company and one Mr. Leno Laitan. In addition, she said certain individuals would bring some cash to be kept for her.
“A total sum of $89million was paid into the accounts. Cash sums of $25million was brought, totaling $114million. The money was kept in the bank pending her instruction as agreed.
“On March 26, 2014, we got instruction that the money be converted to naira. After it was converted, it was about N23billion. There was a list of beneficiaries that was sent, to be paid across the 36 states of the federation, including Kwara. I handled the transactions in my branch.”
Olaobaju further narrated that the defendants were in his office to collect the cash payment, adding that he only acted on instruction.
The witness maintained: “There was an instruction that Nwosu and Adedoyin be paid N264, 880,000. The instruction came from the head office based on instruction from Mrs. Alison-Madueke and they were paid. They signed a receipt of payment for the money they collected.
“After the defendants were paid, they left with the cash and did not pay it into any account.”
Responding to questions under cross examination by defence counsel, Obinna Okereke and Nelson Imoh, the witness said he did not know the purpose of the payment.
“The only instruction we had is that they should bring means of identification and should be paid. They even waited for the money to be released to them. We did not know the purpose of the payment,” he said.
The matter was adjourned till tomorrow for continuation of trial by Justice Idris.
It would be recalled that three officials of INEC were dragged before Justice Idris over their involvement in the collection of certain amount of money from Mrs. Alison-Madueke for the purpose of tampering with the outcome of the 2015 General Election.
They were docked on charges of conspiracy, gratification, money laundering, and making cash payment which according to the Commission, exceeded the amount authorised by law without going through financial institutions.
Aside the convicted Nwosu, others arraigned are Yisa Olanrewaju Adedoyin, and Tijani Inda Bashir.
According to the charge designated FHC/L/106c/2017, the anti-graft agency made an allegation that the INEC officials together with Mrs. Alison-Madueke on March 27, 2015, conspired among themselves to directly take possession of a total sum to the tune of N500, 760 million, which formed parts of proceeds of unlawful act.
Specifically, the anti-graft agency pointed accusing fingers at Tijani Inda Bashir for taking possession of a sum to the tune of N164, 880 million, which forms part of the proceeds of unlawful act, as gratification.
On the other hand, Yisa Olanrewaju and Christian Nwosu were said to have got N70, 050 million and N30 million respectively from Tijani Inda Bashir, without going through financial institutions.
According to the anti-graft agency, the offences offends Sections 18(a), 15(2)(d), 1(a) 16(d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) (Amendment) Act, 2012, and punishable under Sections 15(3) 16(2)(b) of the same Act.
In May last year, the EFCC rearrested Okonkwo in Lagos, over discovery of new funds also allegedly laundered through his bank by Mrs. Alison-Madueke. Okonkwo was re-arrested with the bank’s Heads of Operations.
Both of them were detained at the Commission’s facility in Lagos after fresh revelations emerged that the former oil minister allegedly laundered the money through the bank for purposes of rigging the 2015 elections in favour of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Okonkwo had previously not disclosed the transactions to investigators at the EFCC when he was first arrested, and the discovery prompted another security sweep of the bank.
Okonkwo’s travails followed an allegation that he received over $115 million from Mrs. Alison-Madueke, and three others, but failed to report it to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), of the Commission.
The NFIU is the coordinating entity for the receipt and analysis of financial disclosure of Currency Transaction Reports and Suspicious Transaction Reports in line with Nigeria’s anti-money laundering and combating the financing terrorism (AML/CFT) regime. The unit disseminates intelligence gathered to competent authorities like the EFCC.
The EFCC believes the money was used to bribe INEC officials in the run-up to the 2015 presidential elections.
Consequent upon the ordeal embattled Okonkwo was facing, the management of Fidelity Bank moved to appoint an interim Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.
In appointing Mohammed Balarabe, the Executive Director, North, the Board of the bank said he was appointed as the acting Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect subject to regulatory approval.
The board said the decision followed “the absence of the substantive Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer.”
The board was silent on whether Okonkwo had been fired, but according to reports, Fidelity bank was said to have refunded about N49.7 million, being profit it made from the transaction to the government.
Regardless, the bank issued a statement where it denied culpability, claiming the transactions were duly reported as required by the regulatory authorities and the Bank.
Said the statement: “Our attention has been drawn to reports in the media on investigations into transactions undertaken by the Bank in the normal course of business in 2015. The transactions are now the subject matter of investigations by the Economic & Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),” the bank said in a statement.
“We can confirm that the transactions were duly reported as required by the regulators and the Bank is cooperating fully with the authorities on the investigation.
“We assure our numerous stakeholders, including our customers that we are working assiduously towards a quick resolution of the issues. Thank you. Management.”
Some of those the EFCC arrested in connection with the Fidelity Bank $115m (N23billion) saga include the Chief Executive Officer of Lenoil Nigeria Limited, Laitan Adesanya.
Adesanya was alleged to have handed $1.85million to the bank based on the instruction of Mrs. Alison-Madueke.
Other companies alleged to have handed over money to embattled Okonkwo, included Northern Belt Gas Company ($60 million); Auctus Integrated ($17.8million) owned by Tunde Ayeni; and Onajite Okloko’s Midwestern Oil and Gas ($9.5million).
Mrs. Alison-Madueke was also alleged to have given Okonkwo $26 million in cash which was ultimately believed to have been disbursed as bribes to some officials of the INEC ahead of the 2015 presidential election.
The EFCC believes the $26million allegedly collected directly from Mrs. Alison-Madueke by Okonkwo was neither reported to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) nor the NFIU, a department in the EFCC as it was not deposited in the bank.
Okonkwo assumed duties as Managing Director/CEO with effect from January 2014. Until his appointment as the MD/CEO he was the Executive Director in charge of South Directorate of the bank. He holds a B.Sc in Agricultural Economics from the University of Benin and an MBA, Banking and Finance from Enugu State University.
He is also a graduate of the Advanced Management Programme (AMP) of INSEAD and has also attended other senior-level programmes at world renowned institutions. Before joining Fidelity, Okonkwo was the Head of the Corporate Banking Directorate in (UBA) and had at various times been the MD&CEO of UBA, Ghana and the Regional Chief Executive Officer of all UBA Subsidiaries in Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone and comes with over 25 years experience in various areas of banking.
