EFCC Chairman Gets Courts Permission to Freeze Retired Naval Officer's Accounts

The Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday granted permission to the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, to freeze the accounts of a retired naval officer, Admiral Tahir Yusuf.

Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu granted the order while ruling on an ex parte application filed by Elizabeth Alabi on behalf of the EFCC chairman.

The judge ruled that "an order is hereby made granting the chairman of the EFCC or any officer of the commission the powers to instruct the Managing Director of Zenith Bank Plc or the Chief Compliance Officer of the bank  to issue  a freezing order.

"The freezing order is in respect to the accounts shown in the application until investigation into the matter is concluded."

A similar order was also made by the court, directing the managing director of Skye Bank to also issue a freezing order in respect to the same accounts in his bank.

Justice Ojukwu in addition ordered that should investigations reveal a prima facie case against the respondent, the EFCC should take steps to prosecute appropriately as stipulated by law.

Earlier, Alabi informed the court that the anti-graft agency received intelligence report with regards to some unusual transactions between the account of the Nigerian Navy and the accounts of  Yusuf.

She said upon investigation, it was discovered that huge sums of money were transferred from the navy's account to the account of Yusuf and Babajide Oguntade, both retired officers of the navy.

"We discovered an inflow of about N2 billion into a joint account they had opened. On further investigation, we realised that the money had been spent.

"We also uncovered about seven accounts belonging to Yusuf with the bank and these are the accounts we want the court to freeze so that we can conclude our investigation," she said.

The counsel said investigations were still on to unravel why monies were moved from the Nigerian Navy's account into these individual accounts.

The matter has been adjourned till April 20 for counsel to report back to the court.