Alleged Financial Crime: Court Clears Ex-NNPC GMD, Yakubu, Of $9.8m Money Laundering Charges - Liberty TV/Radio - News - Voice For All! Vision For Alll!
Publisher (A.M)
March 31, 2022
Yakubu, is facing an alleged $9.8m money laundering charge.
On February 3, 2017, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, raided the Kaduna property of the former NNPC
chief and recovered the sum of $9.8m and £74,000 stashed in a fire-
proof safe.
He is alleged to have omitted the monies beyond the five million naira
threshold from the EFCC asset declaration form given to him to fill in
2015.
In his defence, Yakubu claimed that he received the monies as gifts and
estacodes in different tranches. He said he gathered the monies within a
five-year period and decided to keep them in his house pending when he
decides to open a business venture of his choice.
Delivering judgment on Thursday, the judge said the EFCC failed to
establish that the defendant received cash payment beyond the five
million naira threshold.
He described Yakubu’s evidence as credible, adding that he had no
reason to disbelieve it.
The judge added that the EFCC did not do a good job in its
investigation.
Consequently, the judge ordered that the monies deposited in the Central
Bank of Nigeria be returned to the former GMD.