EFCC
Press Release
The Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC, has declared wanted one Amzat Mohmood for his alleged
involvement in petroleum subsidy scam. Mohmood a German citizen of
Pakistani-extraction is an international petroleum trader, whose company, Nimex
Petroleum Limited is involved in a case for which ASB Investment, Aro Samuel
Bamidele and Abiodun Kayode Bankole are already standing trial before a Lagos
State High Court, Ikeja.
Briefing journalists at the
Commission office, Wilson Uwujaren, head, Media and Publicity, stated that Nimex Petroleum Limited is the company that
allegedly sold and shipped 38,010,413 litres of Premium Motor Spirit to the
defendants – ASB Investment, Aro Samuel Bamidele and Abiodun Kayode Bankole - for which they allegedly received
N1,341,471,735.67 as subsidy for products that were never supplied.
Uwujaren also told the
journalists that two Indian nationals, Sailesh Kumar Singh and Chadrashekar
Sharma were successfully prosecuted by
the Commission and convicted by the court. He said the duo were among oil
thieves arrested in Brass, Bayelsa State in 2012 by the Joint Task Force with
157,822 litres of stolen crude oil. The
convicts were sentenced to 15 years imprisonment each. Uwujaren said the
Commission from January 2013 to date
investigated 21 cases of crude oil theft, arrested 81 suspects, while 11 tanker
vessels, 16 tanker trucks were recovered.
On internet fraud, Uwujaren
said the Commission is as determined as ever to stamp out the social malaise as
it continues to clamp down on fraudsters. “One
Daniel Okpara who defrauded people through a facebook account he opened in the
name of the Executive Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde. He lured his victims
by promising them jobs with the Commission. As we speak, he is in prison,
serving a three year jail term,” he said.
Uwujaren seized the opportunity
to inform members of the public that the Commission was not recruiting staff
and so should not be hoodwinked by fraudsters who go about deceiving people in
the name of securing jobs for them in government parastatals. “Recruitment by
the EFCC is conducted in the most transparent manner. Usually, such exercise is
heralded with advertisement in major national newspapers and there are no fees
or charges for prospective employees,” he said.
He also informed the
journalists that Lamorde does not have a private facebook account and that the
Commission’s presence in facebook is through its official facebook page:
http//www.facebook.com/page/official-efcc.
On the Commission cooperation
with sister agencies, Uwujaren said it has been very robust both locally and
internationally. He said it was such cooperation that led to the arrest of one
Jesse Omokoh, an internet fraudster who allegedly obtained the sum of $90,000 from a 67-year-old Australian woman, Jette Jacobs in
a romance scam. “Omokoh, 28, allegedly met the lady in an online dating site
and struck a relationship with a promise to marry the woman. The lady relocated
from Australia to South Africa in November and the accused person
left Nigeria to meet her in Johannesburg on February
4, 2013. Unfortunately, five days later she was found dead in her apartment.”
He said the accused person fled
South Africa
but was arrested by the EFCC because of
the collaboration it has with the Australian police.
Also he said, officers of the Commission were recently in Australia and Spain,
where they worked with their counterparts at the West
Australia and Spanish National Police. “Such engagements enable us
to assist the host Agencies in pending trans-national investigations, while
exposing our staff to international best practices”, he said.
He said the Commission has also played
host to investigators and prosecutors from Zambia, United States, United
Kingdom, the Netherlands, Niger, World Bank and Africa Development Bank; and signed
international memorandum of understanding or joint working agreements other
international partners such as British Serious Fraud Office, Economic Crimes
Network (New Zealand) the Global Fund, United States Trade Commission, World
Bank and a host of others.
Wilson
Uwujaren
Head, Media & Publicity
16th June, 2014
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