Attorney General of Nigeria, Abubakar Malami, may be in trouble with Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over the Dr. George Uboh’s N300 billion slush fund recovery drama.
Pointblanknews.com gathered that Malami is currently being investigated on the orders of President Muhammadu Buhari, over his alleged role in the transfer of slush funds from the NNPC to various banks by Diezani Alison-Madueke.
We learnt trouble started for Malami when he hired Uboh, a convicted felon, in the US and Nigeria, and his firm, Panic Alert Security System (PASS), without due diligence, gave him a huge mandate to trace hidden N300 Billion slush funds in 13 banks. The idea was Uboh’s interestingly.
He told Malami he could help the government trace the funds.
Unknown to the AG, Uboh personally extended his mandate to all banks, parastatals, agencies and individuals, using the official mandate as cover to seek sensitive documents account details.
According to Malami, the bubble bust when some rattled individuals and bank chiefs contacted the AG on the activities of Uboh, and how he was nosing around the source of slush funds.
Buhari is curious and wants Malami to explain why the AG revoked the earlier mandate he gave to Uboh to trace stolen , slush funds in banks.
But Pointblanknews.com gathered that Malami allegedly tried to protect some bank chiefs when he realized Uboh had gone very far in the search for stolen funds.
It was gathered that some of the bank chiefs, including that of Access Bank, had asked Malami to stop Uboh from prying into the source of slush funds in their safe deposit boxes.
Uboh told the Presidents that Malami specifically intervened in the case of Access bank. He alleged Malami tried to reach him severally through his PA, but he refused to talk with the AG. And that the AG tried with several banks and when he could not stop him, he revoked his mandate.
Malami denied “. I did not make, never made and will never make any alliance with anyone in and outside of the banking industry to frustrate PASS or any firm from recovering any FGN funds stashed/trapped in the listed banks or any bank or company in Nigeria or elsewhere”
Curiously, few weeks after Malami stopped Uboh, the top chiefs of three banks in Malami’s list were arrested. The Group Managing Director, of Access Bank, Herbert Wigwe,was busted over funds laundered through the bank by officials of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).
Some questionable funds located in the bank was also traced to former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke. Wigwe allegedly received $5 million that was routed through Zenith Bank.
The Managing Director of Fidelity Bank Plc, Nnamdi Okonkwo, was later arrested by the EFCC over an alleged $115m received from the immediate past Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
Few days later the EFCC traced more than $88 million to a hidden account controlled by the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sterling Bank of Nigeria, Yemi Adeola . The money was transferred to Mr. Adeola from Fidelity Bank of Nigeria whose managing director, Nnamdi Okonkwo, was also detained by the EFCC. All men are on bail.
Malami argued that he revoked Uboh’s mandate because aside going beyond the scope he listed, he was soliciting and/or requesting bank officials to allow him access to certain encrypted systems in order to enable him extract relevant information to execute the brief without appreciation of the security implications of such a delicate venture on Nigeria’s
financial sector and without any prior discussions with and approval from him.
A source told Pointblanknews.com “ It was a grand conspiracy from the office of the Attorney general to the office of the Governor of the Central bank. Yes, Uboh has some shady pasts but if you as AG said investigate 13 banks and he includes more banks agencies and individuals,
why kick him out. You said the banks were complaining Uboh was asking for sensitive documents, but Uboh said the banks wanted to cover up the crimes, who do you believe”
The source said further “Another issue is as the chief law officer of the state, why give a private individual such assignment without a thorough background check. You then turn around to say, the banks were complaining documents he is asking may compromise security because Uboh has a dark past with credit card fraud, financial crimes”.
Malami had stated in his response to Buhari’s query “I was inundated with the excesses of Uboh of PASS and later found out that PASS actually wrote several banks (more than 13 banks), private individuals, corporate entities (national and multinationals), government agencies and virtually all FGN ministries soliciting for data, information, official records, remittances (funds and stocks), and records of whereabouts of all forfeited assets not yet disposed off by some of the FGN agencies, amongst other things.
Malami denied he tried to intervene on behalf of the rogue bank chiefs “To allege that he sent a warning to me through my personal assistant that I should not call him on Access Bank and that I revoked his engagement because I could not talk to him is outright falsehood and the fact remains that I have never ever made an attempt to call him in life at any time prior to the engagement or thereafter and the idea of passing a warning on account of my purported call does not arise.”
He said Further “I was inundated with the excesses of Uboh of PASS and later found out that PASS actually wrote several banks (more than 13 banks), private individuals, corporate entities (national and multinationals), government agencies and virtually all FGN ministries
soliciting for data, information, official records, remittances (funds and stocks), and records of whereabouts of all forfeited assets not yet disposed off by some of the FGN agencies, amongst other things”.
A US court once convicted Mr. Uboh, an older brother of a former member of the House of Representatives, Doris Uboh, for engaging in credit card fraud. US authorities had also indicted him for dealing in narcotics, but the narcotics charges were later dropped.
In 1992, U.S. law enforcement agents carried out a major raid on a credit card and bank fraud ring led by George Uboh in Georgia. US prosecutors identified Mr. Uboh as the ringleader of the syndicate. Doris Uboh’s names appeared as number 7 on the indictment list, and she was charged on four counts of felony charges. She fled the US to Nigeria, later manipulating her way into the House of Reps.
The case against the Ubohs and their co-conspirers was assigned docket number 92-cr-00041-GET-JRS and was listed as USA v. Uboh et al. The Uboh siblings and 27 others were charged with varying degrees of felonious fraud.
The case wound through US courts from 1992 to 1998. Though the US government issued a motion to dismiss the charges with regard to Doris and others in 1998, the case was re-opened in 1999. However, by that time Ms. Uboh had fled the U.S. Her flight led U.S. prosecutors to declare her a “fugitive.”
George Uboh, the serial fraudster who sensationally accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of diverting proceeds of recovered assets was today convicted and sentenced to three years imprisonment by Justice S. E. Aladetoyinbo of the Federal Capital Territory High Court Abuja, for his role in converting the property of the defunct Police Equipment
Foundation for his own use.
Uboh was arraigned by the EFCC on a three-count charge bordered on Criminal Breach of Trust.
