Justice Taiwo Taiwo of a Federal High Court in Abuja, yesterday ordered the freezing of an account owned by the Bauchi state government in First City Monument Bank (FCMB).
According to the order of the court, the account, with number: 0998552074 and a balance of about N11,500,000 000 00, is to be frozen pending the conclusion of a ongoing investigation by the Economic ad Financial Crimes (EFCC).
EFCC had through its lawyer, Abubakar Aliyu, moved an ex-parte application he filed to that effect before the court yesterday.
Justice Taiwo ordered the EFCC to, within 21 days notify the respondents – the Bauchi state government and the FCMB -.about the court’s decision.
The case has been further fixed for September 3, 2019.
In the substantive suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/858/2019, the commission stated that it was investigating a money laundering case in which the account featured prominently.
It claimed that the immediate past government in the state was involved in money laundering for which it deployed the account.
The EFCC stated that it needed to have the account frozen to preserve the funds being held in it.
An official of the EFCC, Yakubu Sani stated in a supporting affidavit that “it is a fact that between the 24th and 28th day of May 2019 the applicant received an intelligence that the then outgoing government at Bauchi state initiated a process at overdrawing to launder the sum of N19,897,809,334.08 being property at Bauchi State Government.
The bank account subject matter of the intelligence is the Bauchi State Government Operational Account number: 0998552074 domiciled at First City Monument Bunk.
“The actual amount in the said bank account is N11,500,000 000 00 which was paid to the Bauchi State Government by the Federal Government of Nigeria via the Central Bank.
“The process of laundering employed by the suspects includes the issuance of mandates and cheques rose to the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) for the payments at non-executed contracts and fictitious claims to individuals and contractors."
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