EFCC Traces 61 Assets To Cecilia Ibru In Dubai
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission( EFCC) has traced 61 assets to former Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Oceanic Bank Mrs. Cecilia Ibru in Dubai in its ongoing tracking of looted funds.
The assets include 41 shops, 16 mansions and four park towers.
All the properties have been confiscated, but their sale is trailed by controversy because about $4,522,413.20 remain unaccounted for in the last seven years.
Out of the over $7million purportedly realised from the disposal of the properties, the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria( AMCON) only received $3,278,238.69 from the proceeds.
The controversy over the sales led to the EFCC’s interrogation of four AMCON officials and former head of the transactions, who is now with a bank.
More bankers have been invited for questioning over how the proceeds were wired from Dubai into some individual and companies’ accounts in Nigeria.
But the EFCC may watch-list a United Kingdom (UK) -based lawyer, who was engaged in June 2011 by AMCON to dispose the assets.
According to a fact-sheet obtained by The Nations correspondent, the details of the assets seized from Mrs. Ibru emerged after a crack team of EFCC detectives visited Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to uncover alleged looted funds and assets bought with crime proceeds.
Apart from identifying the properties of many politically exposed persons (PEPs), the list of Mrs. Ibru’s assets and their alleged questionable disposal were highlights of the EFCC team’s focus.
Justice Daniel Abutu of the Federal High Court in Lagos on October 9, 2010 sentenced Mrs. Ibru to 18 months imprisonment.
He ordered her to forfeit N191billion worth of assets to the Federal Government through AMCON.
The assets to forfeit include properties in Nigeria, United States of America, and Dubai.
She was also ordered to forfeit shares in over 100 firms both listed and unlisted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
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