Officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Friday flew Aminu and Mustapha, two children of Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, to the anti-graft office in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, after they were arrested on Thursday over allegations of involvement in a N10bn fraud.
But political thinkers believe that it is part of the strategies to frustrate the governor, who is part of those spearheading the breakaway faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and attempting to scuttle President Goodluck Jonathan’s chances of re-election in 2015.
They were arrested and detained in Kano on Thursday, after which they were moved to Abuja on Friday morning, where they are being investigated at the time of this report.
It would be recalled that in December 2012, Aminu Sule Lamido was arrested at the Mallam Aminu Kano Airport on his way to Cairo, Egypt for failure to declare his possession of $50,000. Investigation commenced on the case, while the current arrest is said to be an extension of the 2012 investigation.
According to an EFFC source, the current arrest came about as a result of the discovery of massive fraud running into billions of naira through money laundering by the duo.
He said that despite Aminu’s prosecution and punishment, investigations had continued on how he got the amount, stressing that the investigation led the EFCC into discovering that since 2007, several amounts of money estimated at over N10bn belonging to the Jigawa State Government had been moved out of the country in similar methods and through companies belonging to the state governor but run by the two children.
Companies listed by the EFCC in this regard include Rawda Integrated Services Limited, Speeds International Limited and Saby Integrated Nigeria Limited, Bamaina Aluminum Limited, Bamaina Holdings Limited, Bamaina Company Nigeria Limited.
The EFCC found that N2.6bn was transferred into the account of Rawda Integrated Services Limited by an unknown signatory and that the account recorded over 100 withdrawals running to over N600m between November 2007 and April 2008; while in the case of the Saby Integrated Services Nigeria Limited, over N730m was received from different agencies of the Jigawa State Government between June 2010 and August 2010.
EFCC said it also discovered that the account of Bamaina Holdings Limited, which has Governor Lamido as the sole signatory, received a total of N1.19bn between February 2007 and July 2013, with N1bn paid from the account into accounts of companies controlled by the governor and his sons. Also, Bamaina Company Nigeria Limited controlled by Mustapha as sole signatory from Bamaina Aluminum had received N500m between January 2010 and July 2013.
The EFCC added that the account of Rawda Integrated Services Limited controlled by Mustapha was also used to move funds to Speeds International Limited, another company run by Sule Lamido, thus recording a turnover of N2.2bn between January 2007 and February 2010.
Furthermore, Bamaina Aluminum, which has Sule Lamido and his two sons as directors and controlled by Mustapha as signatory, received total credit of N1.52bn between January 2010 and August 2013. The money was also later transferred to other companies owned by Lamido.
