Walter Onnoghen, chief justice of
Nigeria (CJN), may have more trouble coming his way as detectives have
allegedly traced suspicious transactions to his accounts.
According to The Nation, the
transactions include a $800,000 Standard Chartered Bank investment
subscription, $630,000 lodged in some of the accounts through what is described
as “structured payments” in tranches of $10,000 each.
Most of the lodgments, effected
between 2012 and 2016, were said to have been undeclared in Onnoghen’s assets
declaration form.
Already, the Nigerian Financial
Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has restricted the operation of five accounts with
about $3 million.
An intelligence report seen by
the newspaper reads: “Pattern of structured
payments of $10,000.00 each in 2012. For example, a total of $630,000.00
was credited to the accounts using this pattern.
“Similarly structured payments of
$10,000.00 amounting to $297,800.00, $50,000.00 and $36,000.00 were deposited
in the account in 2013, 2015 and 2016 respectively.
“There was also a credit of
$121,116.00 into the account from 2014 to 2016 from Life Friend Plc. The
payments were in four installments, of $30,279.00 each. These payments suggest
the suspect has investments.
“A payment at $482,966.00 from
Alicia Redemption Pro and shortly after, $800,000.00 was invested in SCB
Investment subscription. We are in the process of verifying these transactions.
“Other suspicious transactions in
the account are credit of $19,764.00 from Pur of Noble and seven (7) payments
of $3,250.00, each amounting to $22,750.00 from Lloyds TSB.”
The investigative team also
reportedly discovered a self-transfer of £40,268.40 into his pounds sterling
account on May 31, 2016.
There were also self-deposits by
the CJN of £49,760.00 from July 2015 to September 2016 but the balance as at
September 30, 2016 was £108,348.00.
On the naira account, the
intelligence report read: “The following highlights some of the suspicious
activities in the account: A transfer of N41,262.000.00 ($260,000) was made
from the dollar account. The money was used to make payment of N41million to Ad
hoc Committee on the Sale of Federal Government Houses, suggesting that he
bought a property with proceeds of the transfer.
“The only other significant
transactions in the accounts are six (6) structured cash payments of
N500,000.00 each and one payment of N700,000.00 amounting to N3.7mlllion from
November, 2013 to August, 2016.”
All the transactions, according
to the newspaper, are reportedly being investigated to determine whether they
violated the code of conduct for judicial officers, which was put in place by
the National Judicial Council (NJC).
Amid his trial at the Code of
Conduct Tribunal (CCB), the federal government had asked Onnoghen to “step
aside” as the CJN.
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