Suspended NIA boss’ wife bought Ikoyi flat with $1.6m cash, says EFCC
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Friday named Mrs. Folashade Oke as the owner of Flat 7 B , No . 13 , Osborne Road , Osborne Towers , Ikoyi , Lagos , where the sums of $ 43 , 449 ,947 , £ 27 , 800 and N23 , 218 ,000 were recently recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Mrs . Oke is the wife of the suspended Director General of the National Intelligence Agency Amb. Ayo Oke, whose agency had laid claim to the money .
According to the EFCC , Mrs . Oke made a cash payment of $ 1 . 658 m for the purchase of the flat between August 25 and September 3 , 2015 .
She was said to have purchased the property in the name of a company , Chobe Ventures Limited , to which she and her son , Master Ayodele Oke Junior , were directors .
Payment for the purchase of the flat was said to have been made to one Fine and Country Limited . The EFCC stated that Mrs. Oke made the cash payment in tranches of $ 700 ,000 , $ 650 ,000 and $ 353 , 700 to a Bureau de Change company , Sulah Petroleum and Gas Limited , which later converted the sums into N360 , 000 ,000 and subsequently paid it to Fine and Country Limited for the purchase of the property .
The EFCC on Friday tendered the receipt issued by Fine and Country Limited to Chobe Ventures Limited as an exhibit before the Federal High Court in Lagos , where it is seeking an order of final forfeiture of the recovered money to the Federal Government .
“ The circumstances leading to the discovery of the huge sums stockpiled in Flat 7 B , Osborne Towers leaves no one in doubt that the act was pursuant to an unlawful activity.
“ The very act of making cash payment of $ 1 .6 m without going through any financial institution by Mrs . Folashade Oke for the acquisition of Flat 7 B , 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 ,” a counsel for the EFCC , Mr . Rotimi Oyedepo , told the court on Friday .
In an affidavit filed before the court , a Detective Inspector with the EFCC , Mohammed Chiroma , stated that “ Chobe Ventures Limited is not into any business but was merely incorporated to retain proceeds of suspected unlawful activities of Mrs. Folashade Oke .”
While urging the presiding judge , Justice Muslim Hassan , to order the permanent forfeiture of the funds to the Federal Government , Oyedepo argued that the fact that Flat 7 B , Osborne Towers was purchased in a criminal manner , made the N13 bn recovered therein “ extremely suspicious to be proceeds of unlawful acts .”
The lawyer noted that despite the newspaper advertisement of the initial order of April 13 , 2017 temporarily forfeiting the money to the Federal Government , no one showed up in court on Friday to show cause why the money should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government .
