Jafaru Mohammed, EFCC’s Accountant In Charge Of NIA Ikoyi N13 Billion Loot, Steals N10.9 Billion
The top military commander implicated in the latest seizure by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has been identified as Brigadier General Jafaru Mohammed.
The EFCC provided details on Tuesday of 24 properties worth N10.9 billion that military officers, including late Gen. Maude Aminun-Kano, had forfeited to the federal government.
Despite the fact that the panel did not name the officer, the forfeiture has been linked to Mr Mohammed, according to the findings of the Peoples Gazette.
Mr Mohammed, who is currently the Director of Finance and Administration in the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), was appointed by the EFCC in 2017 under Ibrahim Magu to oversee the finances of the National Intelligence Agency, NIA, after N13 billion was discovered in a Lagos apartment belonging to the spy agency.
At the time, the commission had taken control of bank accounts controlled by Nigeria’s foreign intelligence service.
On April 12, EFCC operatives discovered the recovered money, which included $43.5 million, £27,800, and N23.2 million, hidden inside Apartment 7B at Osborne Towers, Ikoyi.
Ayodele Oke, the NIA’s then-director general, confessed to Premium Times that the money belonged to his organization. Mr. Oke was later removed from his position.
The commission’s agents, led by Ibrahim Magu, forced the NIA’s director of Finance and Administration to transfer the funds to Mr Mohammed, an army official connected to the Office of the National Security Adviser, according to the report.
The commission subsequently named Mr. Jafaru Mohammed as the NIA’s Director of Finance and ordered an audit of the agency’s finances to begin.
Mr Mohammed was repeatedly tried to be installed as the NIA’s new Director of Finance, according to the report, but authorities at the agency blocked him each time.
Mr. Magu was replaced as EFCC head in February 2021 by Abdulrasheed Bawa. The anti-graft agency secured an interim forfeiture judgment from the Federal High Court in Abuja in March in respect of some properties purportedly owned by National Security Adviser Mohammed Babagana Mungono but kept in a proxy.
As part of a larger investigation into the finances of the National Security Agency, Justice Folashade Ogunbanjo ordered the interim confiscation of eight properties linked to Mr Mohammed in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/007/2021.
House on Plot 7, God’s Own Estate, Road 1, Wamna District, Abuja; fenced plot at No 1 Jubril Aminu Crescent, Katampe Extension, Abuja; plot at Kubwa Express, Directly opposite Abuja Model City Gate, Abuja; and house on Block SD 22 House 2, Road 5, Kabusa Garden Estate, Abuja were among the assets listed.
No 15, 21 Crescent, 2nd Avenue, Gwarinpa Estate, Abuja; No 3 Liverpool Close, Sun City Estate, Abuja; No 52 Mainstreet, Sun City Estate, Abuja; and No 25 Osaka Street, Sun City Estate, Abuja are among the other addresses.
The EFCC said it proceeded after receiving information that a serving top military commander had a practice of buying high-profile homes and had formed companies with similar assets.
Mr Mohammed had earned no more than N73.4 billion since his enlistment in the Nigerian Army in 1993, according to the commission, and could not have properly acquired such properties, according to the court filing.
In response, Mr Mohammed said that the anti-graft agency’s trial of him for alleged conspiracy, theft, and money laundering was a personal vendetta.
Wilson Ujuwaren, a spokesman for the EFCC, declined to comment on the agency’s ties to Mr Mohammed, stating that he would not reveal any information other than what was included in court filings.
