NIA, a highly secretive organisation in Nigeria’s security circles, is the government agency that oversees foreign intelligence and counter intelligence operations in the country.
With the forfeiture order on the cash recovered bythe commission from an apartment in the Ikoyi area of Lagos State on Wednesday, EFCC got the court to temporarily seize monies that were meant for an ongoing covert operation and had been hidden in a safe house back to the government coffers.
The court order also came on the heels of the raidby EFCC operatives on the Abuja residence of theformer Managing Director of NNPC Retail, Mrs. Esther Ogbue, and her invitation to the commission’s office for interrogation over the expropriation of NNPC’s petroleum products stored in Capital Oil and Gas Limited and MRS OilPlc’s facilities in Lagos.
As of press time, it was uncertain if Nnamdi-Ogbue who went to the commission in the company of her lawyer, Mr. Emeka Etiaba (SAN), had been released.
On Thursday, it was erroneously reported that the cash haul discovered in Apartment 7B, No. 16 Osborne Road, Ikoyi, belonged to her.
However, her lawyer and a member of her family who spoke to THISDAY strenuously, denied that she owns the apartment and cash found in it, disclosing that she and her family reside in Apartment 2B in the same luxury sky-rise complex, known as Osborne Towers, where the cash was discovered.
THISDAY learnt that the cash had been stashed away in the apartment by NIA for a covert operation but was shocked on Wednesday when news broke that its operation had been compromised by the acting Chairman of the EFCC Ibrahim Magu and his personnel.
Opening up on how the raid of the apartment occurred and what transpired subsequently, a security official revealed that when the EFCC officials got to Osborne Towers, they were confronted by three or four NIA operatives who showed them their ID cards and confirmed that “property” in the said apartment belonged to the NIA.
“However, they were ignored and excitable Magu and his operatives went ahead to move the cash found in the apartment and made a great show ofthe discovery of another cash haul.
“When the Director General of the NIA, Ambassador Ayodele Oke, got wind of what had happened, he immediately got in touch with Maguand informed him that the money belonged to his agency and their cover had been blown by the action of the EFCC.
“All Magu said to him was ‘okay I have heard’, and took no action to correct his mistake.“When Magu remained unyielding, the DG asked him to inform Mr. President that the funds belong to the NIA and were meant for an ongoing covert operation.
“We don’t know if Magu eventually reported the incident to the president, but we know that Mr. President has instructed that the funds should be returned to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN),” the security source revealed.
He said that President Muhammadu Buhari also instructed that the NIA should reapply for the funds, which shall now have to go through appropriation at the National Assembly.
“Right now, the intelligence community is shocked at Magu’s blunder, which he made worseby trying to ascribe the funds to that NNPC woman who knew nothing about it,” the source added.
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