- The Special Presidential Investigative Panel on the Recovery of Public Property (SPIP) has written the United Kingdom to assist in the investigation of five senators
- The special assistant to the president on public Prosecution, Okoi Obono-Obla noted that if they are found culpable, they would be prosecuted in accordance with extant laws
- Obono-Obla listed the five public officials to be Senators Ike Ekweremadu, Hope Uzodinma, Stella Odua, Peter Nwaoboshi and Albert Bassey Akpan
In order to assist in the investigation of five senators with properties in the UK and the British Vi*gin Islands, the Special Presidential Investigative Panel on the Recovery of Public Property (SPIP) said it has written the National Crime Commission (NCC) of the United Kingdom, Vanguard reports.
Legit.ng gathered that Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, the chairman of the panel and special assistant to the president on public Prosecution, disclosed this at a news conference Monday, December 17, in Abuja to highlight some of the activities of the body in 2018.
He said: “The UK has passed a law that will also help us in Nigeria fight corruption and that is the ‘Unexplained Wealth Regulation’ which entails that if you have a property in the UK that is above $50, 000, you have to explain your source of wealth, and property here does not just mean a building but even jewelries.
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So, we have written the National Crime Authority in the UK asking them to investigate some Nigerian public officers who have property in the UK and the Vi*gin Islands.”
Obono-Obla added that if they are found culpable, they would be prosecuted in accordance with extant laws and made to forfeit such properties.
He listed the five public officials to be Senators Ike Ekweremadu, Hope Uzodinma, Stella Odua, Peter Nwaoboshi and Albert Bassey Akpan.
The chairman of the panel also denied accusations by Uzodinma that the panel was being instigated against him by the Imo state governor, Rochas Okorocha.
Obono-Obla added that five oil companies are also under investigation for tax evasion and refusal to pay royalties to the Nigerian government.
“A lot of oil companies are contributing to the economic challenges facing the country, denying Nigeria of royalties and also evading taxes, money that would have been channeled to the development of the country.
“Working with the Federal Inland Revenue Service FIRS, we discovered that Addax Petroleum has failed to pay tax for five years and so they are owing about N700 million. Then, thanks to a petition we received from Femi Falana SAN, Mobil which purchased an oil bloc in 2001 for $2.5 billion dollars is yet to pay about $1.9 billion of that money to the government. We have commenced our investigations too”, he stated.
He further said the panel was also looking at a petition involving a top official of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as well as against the management of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under Chukwuma Soludo and Sanusi Lamido Sanusi with regards to debt cancellations to banks.
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In a previous report by Legit.ng, a group, the Human Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) has asked the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen, to probe governors accused of corrupt practices.
HEDA made the request in a letter where it highlighted the corruption allegations against 47 former governors, 10 former ministers/ presidential advisers, three senators and two judges among others.
It stated that Nigeria has about N2 trillion cases of corruption, including the $2 billion arms procurement case involving a former national security adviser, Sambo Dasuki.
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Source: Legit.ng
