N13bn Ikoyi Cash: EFCC Invites Oke, Wife and NIA Officials
Ambassador Ayodele Oke, the immediate past Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, and his wife, Folasade, have been invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over the $43m, N23m and £27,000 (N13bn) recovered from an Ikoyi apartment.
According to The Nation, impeccable sources within the EFCC said the couple were invited to the zonal office of the anti-graft agency in Lagos.
A senior operative said, “In furtherance of its investigative activities to unravel the circumstances surrounding the $43.45m cash recovered by the operatives of the EFCC in Lagos sometime in April 2017, we have invited a former Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ayodele Oke, and his wife, Folashade.”
The EFCC had in April invited Folashade but she failed to show up because President Muhammadu Buhari had set up a committee to investigate the matter.
However, following the sacking of her husband and the statement by the Presidency that the EFCC was free to continue its investigation, the anti-graft agency sent out letters of invitation to the couple and some officials of the NIA.
Others who are expected to report to the anti-graft agency include a bureau de change operator, Sulah Petroleum and Gas Limited, and officials of the NIA.
The operative added, “Mrs. Oke (Folashade) had refused to honour previous invitations by the commission which resumed its investigation into the matter following the Federal Government’s decision to relieve Mr. Oke of his position as DG.
“Apart from the couple, other suspects are equally being invited to determine their culpability or otherwise in the humongous cash, in foreign currencies and naira notes, stashed in a residential building on Osborne Road, Ikoyi, Lagos.”
The EFCC in an interim report said Folashade paid $1.658m to acquire flat 7B at the Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, where the money was seized.
She was said to have made a cash payment of $1.658m for the purchase of the flat between August 25 and September 3, 2015, in the name of a company, Chobe Ventures Limited.
Folasade was also said to have made the cash payment in tranches of $700,000, $650,000 and $353,700 to a bureau de change, Sulah Petroleum and Gas Limited, which later converted the sums to N360m and subsequently paid it to Fine and Country Limited for the purchase of the property.
A receipt was issued by Fine and Country Limited to Chobe Ventures Limited after the flat was purchased.
According to the EFCC, “The very act of making cash payment of $1.6m without going through any financial institution by Mrs. Folashade Oke for the acquisition of Flat 7B, Osborne Towers, is a criminal act punishable by the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Amendment Act. I refer My Lord to sections 1(a), 16(d) and 16(2)(b) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Amendment Act.”
Also, in an affidavit deposed to by Detective Inspector with the EFCC, Mohammed Chiroma, Chobe Ventures, which is not into any business, was merely incorporated to retain proceeds of suspected unlawful activities of Oke.
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