By Uche Amunike
The former Governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano has been accused by a witness during proceedings at a Federal High Court in Abuja, Monday, to have used three unlicensed companies to divert N4 billion from the state account mapped out for security in his last five years in office, says a report by Premium Times.
Obiano, who served as Anambra State Governor from 2014 to 2022 under the aegis of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Obiano, who is now a defendant, was accused of directing the diversion of the money from the state’s account between April 2017 and March 2022.
According to the EFCC, the funds were diverted through companies ‘that had no business relationship with the Anambra State Government.’
They further claimed that the funds were eventually converted to dollars and hundred over to the Obiano, in cash, during his tenure.
They also alleged that former Governor Willie Obiano stole the money during the five years, by instructing his Chief Protocol Officer/Deputy Chief-of/staff, Uzuegbuna Okagbue to transfer various amounts of money from the state on several occasions.
However, Obiano denied all nine charges when he was arraigned in January 2024.
According to a statement posted by the EFCC on Facebook, Monday, they presented their third witness, Andrew Ali, who is a staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Head of the License Office.
Andrew Ali informed the court during the hearing that out of the 23 company accounts connected with the alleged N4bn fraud, three were not duly licensed with the CBN, to carry out Bureau-de-Change (BDC) business.
While being led in evidence by prosecution counsel, Sylvanus Tahir (SAN), the witness identified the three companies as Connaught International Service, Zirga Zirga Trading Company and SY Panda Enterprise.
According to him, Zirga had been delisted from the CBN License list before 2014 when Willie Obiano became governor.
Hear him: ‘Sometime around April 2023, we received two letters from the EFCC regarding some 23 financial institutions to know if they were licenced or not, I recall forwarding the two letters to the desk officer, who upon review, said we have received such letters in the past before so we comprehensively replied the EFCC in a letter dated May 21, 2023 and as seen in the letter of our response, out of 23 companies, three of them were not registered.’
According to the statement, the eight-page letter from the EFCC, as well as the response, were admitted in evidence and marked as exhibits A1-A8.
According to reports by Premium Times, during a cross examination by the defense counsel, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), Mr Ali recalled that Zirga Zirga Trading Company did not meet with the licensing requirements before 2014 and once a company does not meet with the requirements, they are delisted.
He further stated: ‘It is in public knowledge that we only supervise the people that are licensed, once you are not on our list, we lose the power to supervise you. We run a public notice to sensitise the public not to operate with unlicensed companies which is also on our website.’
He further stressed that delisting of companies that failed to meet up with requirements for renewable licensing is backed up by Section 15 and 19 of the CBN Revised Operational Guidelines 2015.
His words: ‘Our work is to regulate, and supervise them. Once you do not meet the requirement of renewable licensing, you will be delisted and we publish it on our valedictory list which is on our website.’
‘BDCs also have operational accounts which they do business with, they are not allowed to do business without those accounts.’
The case was adjourned to February 26, 2025 by Justice Inyang Ekwo for continuation of trial.
