N450m Fraud: Surprise as EFCC closes case against ex-power minister, 4 others in APC-controlled State

The Maiduguri Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Wednesday, June 14, 2023, closed its case against a former Minister of Power, Mohammed Wakil.

The prosecution closed its case against Wakil and four others, before Justice K. Dagat of the Federal High Court, Maiduguri, Borno State, after presenting three witnesses, Channels TV reported.

Wakil, alongside Garba Abatcha, Ibrahim Shehu Birma, Dr. Abubakar Ali Kullima and Engr. Muhammad Baba Kachalla, were re-arraigned by the EFCC on a-seven count charge of criminal conspiracy to commit money laundering to the tune of N450,000,000.00 (Four Hundred and Fifty Thousand Million Naira).

They were alleged to have received the said sum from the $ 115 million disbursed by a former minister of petroleum resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke to influence the outcome of the 2015 presidential election, The Punch report added.

A Federal High Court sitting in Gusau, Zamfara State capital, on Thursday, June 15, ordered the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Department of State Service (DSS), and other security agencies involved in evacuating about 40 vehicles and other items from the residences of former Governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, to produce them within 48 hours.

The Federal High Court presided over by Justice Aliyu Bappa, directed the respondents to return all the vehicles and other items.

The court also directed the security agencies to produce a written inventory of the items removed and bring them under the custody of the court pending the determination of the applicant’s Substantive Originating Motion in the matter which comes up on June 28.