N250m alleged money laundering scam: Assembly clears Obi •Says Anambra money not missing


Source: Sun News

The Anambra State House of Assembly yesterday adopted the report of the three-man ad-hoc committee on the issue of N250 million belonging to Anambra State that was intercepted by the police in Lagos state, exonerating Governor Peter Obi of any complicity in the business.

The House had, on June 2, 2009 at the peak of the scandal, set up the ad-hoc committee comprising Hons. Gabriel Onyenwife, chairman, Chinedu Muokwue and Nnamdi Ezike as members, to look into the root of the facts surrounding the origin and destination of the said money.

At yesterday’s sitting, Chairman of the committee, Hon. Onyenwife read the six-page report of the committee which was adopted as a working document for the House though not without objection from two members Hon. J. C. Okeke of Nnewi Constituency and leader of the House, Hon. (Mrs.) Njideka Ezeigwe, who wanted the report to be stood down for members to study.

However, the committee in the report recommended that the report be accepted as a working document pending when reports of the police and the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) were sent to it for it to fully report to the House.
Part of the adopted report reads: “The committee found out from the office of the secretary to the state government that Ejike Onwusogbulu is the owner of Glitz Introserve Ltd which is a registered company with the state government.

“Mr. speaker, the committee found out from the office of the accountant general of the state that the state government has not paid any amount of money whatsoever to either Ejike Onwusogbulu personally or to Glitz Introserve Ltd or Autozone Motors Global Ltd.” The accountant general appeared personally before the committee.

“The committee, on reply from the heads of local government administrations of the state and after conducting oral interview with them one after the other, discovered that all the heads of local government administration, through their secretariat in the office of the honourable commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, agreed to purchase 21 units of Kia Optima cars for their respective offices in the 21 LGA’s of Anambra State and 21 units of Ford Ranger 4x4 Pick Up van for the police in the 21 local government areas of the state to beef-up security in the state.
“The heads of local government administration in all the local governments agreed through selective tender to award the contract to Autozone Motors Global Ltd and Glitz Introserve Ltd.

“The committee discovered that the contract sum for the purchase and supply of the aforementioned vehicles were N4,850,000 per unit for the Ford Ranger 4x4 Pick Up van and N3,700,000 per unit for the Kia Optima cars. The total contract sum is N179,550,000. There is an advance payment guarantee from Fidelity Bank in respect of the contract. There is also a letter of domiciliation of the above amount from one Stephaine Keri Uzo JP of office of the honourable commissioner, Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, to the branch manager, Fidelity Bank Plc, No 7, Zik Avenue Awka.
“The committee found out that all the local governments raised payment vouchers and subsequently issued cheques in respect of the above contracts. The cheques are yet to be paid to the contractor though deposited with the bank where the total sum of contract is domiciled i.e Fidelity Bank Plc of No. 7 Zik Avenue, awka.

“It was also discovered by the committee from Ejike Onwusogbulu that the amount that was intercepted by the police in Lagos was N255,000,000.00 (two hundred and fifty five million naira) and not N250,000,000.00 (two hundred and fifty million). The money, from investigation, was an overdraft facility withdrawn by Ejike Onwusogbulu from Fidelity Bank Plc, No 7 Zik Avenue, Awka on Thursday, May 28, 2009.
“The committee found out from Ejike Onwusogbulu that he withdrew the money for the purposes of direct purchase of the contracted vehicles from dealers in Lagos who are more inclined to cash and carry transaction.

“…The committee discovered that the said money withdrawn by Ejike Onwusogbulu i.e N255,000,000.00 (two hundred and fifty five million naira) was the money intercepted by the police in Lagos. The governor corroborated the fact that Ejike Onwusogbulu was the owner of the money and that the said vehicles intercepted with the money were his, going for routine servicing in Lagos and that he was aware that the contractor gave the money to his driver.

“…It is the recommendation of the committee that as the police and the EFCC are yet to come out with any report, this report should be accepted as a working document pending when reports of the police and EFCC are sent to the committee for the committee to fully report to the House.”

I Copied the newspaper report earlier in the morning but I couldnt see it thereafter and I guess somehow it was flagged as spam.