Nigerians have faulted a claim by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) that it is the owner of the $43.4 million, 7,000 and N23 million uncovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at an apartment in Lagos.
A renowned former diplomat, Ambassador Dapo Fafowora, said it was most unlikely and highly improbable that the NIA would keep cash of such magnitude in a residence.
He admitted that the agency keeps cash for covert operations but not such volume of cash.
“lt is a ruse if indeed the NIA is claiming ownership of the money. $43million cash? That will be strange, “he said in an interview yesterday.
Fafowora, who was one time Deputy Permanent Representative of Nigeria at the United Nations, said when he worked with the late Umaru Shinkafi , then head of the security service in the seventies and early eighties, the agency kept some money usually not more than some thousands of dollars or pounds for discreet operations, but certainly not huge cash that would be difficult to explain.
Constitutional lawyer and rights activist, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), said the claim that the money belongs to the NIA was “facical”.
He said there was no way a reasonable person would agree that an intelligence agency would hide money in an apartment.
The SAN urged EFCC to name and shame the owners, saying someone must own the apartment.
Ozekhome said: “We seem now fixated to name, shame and humiliate Nigerians with the paint brush of shame, odium, obloquy and denigration.
“How can about N15 billion be found in highbrow Osborne Road, Ikoyi, by no means a back squalid street?
“How can the equivalent of CIA keep such hard currency in cash at an unguarded apartment, tucked away with many other apartments in a block of flats, not in a separate heavily fortified and fiercely guarded stand-alone building that has “keep off” carefully imprinted on it?
“What was it meant for and who approved it, and in which budget? Who was the whistle-blower that could identify that such money was ‘hidden’ in the bedroom in flat 7A, leaving out flat 7B, yet not knowing who kept the money there or its ownership?
“Why was EFCC not pictured or captured in video going into the apartment before we suddenly saw an arranged ‘counting’ of money?
“Are there no CCTV in such a highbrow? Can we see the footages please?
“Only last week, N49m orphaned sum was ‘arrested’ at Kaduna Airport! Then, suddenly, another sum of orphaned N448m was ‘discovered’ in an ownerless shop in Victoria Island. Who owned the plaza? Who sold there? Are there no CCTV there? Can we see them please?
Another SAN, Seyi Sowemimo, said if the money truly belongs to the NIA, the agency should come forward to explain the purpose.
“I find it strange that a public agency like the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA) would come forward and admit that it kept the money there.
“”What could be the reason for keeping such money there? Is it in any way tied to its official duties? What was the purpose?
“It is only when the NIA discloses this that one can know if it is concerned with its functions and I don’t know if this is something that they should do without disclosing it to maybe an institution like the Central Bank.
“The position as I have always understood it is that you cannot keep such monies in a private residence. But I am even going beyond that in order to come to a view of the matter. It isn’t enough for the NIA to say ‘it is our money’.
“They need to go beyond that and say whether it is in any way connected to their statutory duties and how they came about the money. Why should a minor institution like that not have the money in a bank? To me, it does not add up.”
Alarmed by the report, the youth wing of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum said the government should set up a panel to address the controversy surrounding the recovered money.
The national leader of the group, Comrade Shetimma Yerima, described the report as ridiculous, wondering how the agency could come about such sum of money.
Shetimma said: “It is very funny. How did NIA come about such money? What business are they doing that would make them keep such sum of money in their office? If such statement could come from the NIA, then it means that we don’t have a government in place.
“For such to have happened, it means that there is a foul play somewhere. It shows that the agency cannot be trusted. The Federal Government should set up a panel to investigate this. It simply leaves one to wonder if the agency has now become an extension of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“If NIA claims that the money belongs to the agency, the boss should come out and explain how they got it.”
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Ladi Williams, also charged the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency investigate the development.
“It is not out of place for an individual or an agency to keep any amount of money at home as long as it is legally acquired. What is required is for the owner to prove this, and once he does that, there is no problem.
“The NIA should tell Nigerians the source of the money because they don’t manufacture money. If the NIA truly claims that the money belongs to them, then it is the government’s money and should go to the CBN.
“The government should investigate the whole thing and if the money legally belongs to the NIA, the CBN should release it to them. From what is happening now, it is obvious that there is no cohesion between the EFCC, NIA and DSS.
Another Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Chief Niyi Akintola blamed government policies for why people keep money at home and frowned at what he described as media driven nature of anti -graft agencies in the country.
“Some government policies are responsible for why people keep money at home. Nigerian policy makers don’t do proper thinking. Again, our anti -graft agencies are too media-driven. They should strategise and do less talking.”
The National President, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), Malachy Ugwummadu, said the true owner of the money must be exposed.
“It raises questions of the legality of warehousing those kinds of sums. If the NIA claims it owns the money, to what extent has it also explained the need for such humongous sums kept outside the banking system?
“Was it for an operational purpose? What purpose requires those kinds of amounts and needed to be done only by the disbursement of the money in the manner that they were found?
“When were they kept there? For how long have they been there? Who authorised them to be kept there? For what purpose? These are questions that must be answered by anyone who shows up claiming to be the owner of that kind of money.
“Otherwise, it would raise suspicion that we are looking at a system that encourages even official financial transgressions and that supports the kind of temerity we are seeing,” Ugwummadu said.
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