Anguish in EFCC handcuffs

HONOURABLE Justice Abdullai Liman of the Federal High Court, Kaduna, was in no mood to smile. After eight unbroken months of hearing this case, he decided that July 29, 2005 was the day he would give a final judgment to proceed to trial or accept a nocase submission as moved by my defence lawyers. The trial had been gruelling. We were totally exhausted. The ordeal leading to the trial began on Saturday, December 4, 2004, a day which promised to be a personal celebration. Edo College Old Boys Association, Lagos Branch (ECOBA) had set the day aside to honour me as the Distinguished Old Boy of the Year. It was to be an evening event and my wife had enthusiastically looked forward to the event. Also being honoured was the publisher and editor-in-chief of Thisday newspaper, Prince Nduka Obaigbena, an old boy of Edo College like me. It promised to be an exciting media event.

But first, I had to attend the inter-house sports competition of Corona Primary School, Victoria Island, where two of my children, Osobase and Ofumere, were students. I left my wife behind at the event. By 2.00 pm, I was at home to prepare myself for the big event of the day. While in the house, I heard a commotion at the entrance gate of my house. I peeped through the upstairs window to know what it was. I could not properly decipher what was happening but I could hear my security staff telling the person to wait outside even though the visitor insisted on coming into the compound. A visitor’s note was sent to me. It read: Mr Kalu from EFCC. EFCC is the acronym for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Nigerian crimefighting agency.

I had encountered the same gentleman earlier in the week in my office at Liberty Bank Plc. Mr Kalu had come to Liberty Bank on Thursday, December 2, 2004 to arrest Mr. Awe Odesa, a deputy General Manager in the bank. Mr. Odesa objected to the shabby way the arrest was being carried out, particularly because there was no warrant of arrest. Mr Kalu, a police officer attached to the EFCC, said Mr. Odesa was wanted at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja to answer questions connected with his previous place of employment. He explained that Mr. Odesa had operated an account for a politically-exposed person, which was not properly opened. After discussing with both parties, Mr. Odesa agreed to report to the EFCC office on Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, where he answered questions from the agency’s team. I thought the matter was rested. When Mr. Kalu then came to my house on this day, I presumed there were certain issues concerning our earlier meeting which he wanted to clarify. While I wondered who could have given him my home address, I invited him to my sitting room and joined him. He said he had come to arrest me because his EFCC bosses also needed me to answer some questions on the same account over which he had come to the office to arrest Mr. Odesa. I asked him where was I to answer the questions and he answered in Abuja. I asked if I could come to the Lagos office on Monday, December 6, to answer the questions. He said no. My world caved in and my ‘Edo College-day-of-honour’ went up in smoke. I then called my wife to come home because of certain complications.

As my discussions with Mr. Kalu continued, a second visitor came to the house. It was Mr. Shola Taiwo, a trusted staff of Otunba Mike Adenuga, whom he had sent to see me a few times in the past. Prior to the visit of Mr. Taiwo, Otunba Adenuga and I had been engaged in a longdrawn negotiation over his invitation that I should take over as the Managing Director of DEVCOM Bank Limited, a bank where he was chairman of the board of directors. At this time, I was the Managing Director, Liberty Bank Plc. Our point of divergence was that Otunba Adenuga wanted me to take-over DEVCOM Bank as soon as a letter of appointment was given to me but

I asked that I should be able to give Liberty Bank Plc at least one month notice of disengagement. At this time Otunba Adenuga was chairman of GLO Telecommunications, CONOIL Plc and DEVCOM Bank Limited, he was also the principal shareholder of Equitorial Trust Bank Limited and the unofficial chairman of Equitorial Trust. I presumed that Mr Taiwo had probably come with an important message from Otunba Adenuga.

Knowing that I needed to attend to Mr. Taiwo, I took him into my private sitting room. There, Mr. Taiwo gave me a letter signed by Otunba Adenuga, appointing me as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of DEVCOM Bank Limited, with effect from Monday, December 12, 2004. The situation was a classical definition of a dramatic irony. I was now torn between the proverbial heaven and hell, between an invitation to the EFCC over questionable banking transactions and a letter appointing me the Chief Executive Officer of another bank. I acknowledged receipt of the letter from Otunba Adenuga, accepted the terms of offer of appointment, and allowed Mr. Taiwo to leave. At this point, my wife returned home with the children. I explained the development to her and, on the advice of Mr. Kalu, I packed a few items, including my prayer book and rosary. I was hoping to return in a day or two. Before setting out, I made a phone call to my uncle, Chief Tony Anenih, to alert him on what was happening. He told me to let him know as soon as I arrived in Abuja. My belief was that I would spend a maximum of one hour at the EFCC office in Abuja.

By 3.30 pm, we drove off in the EFCC police car from my Victoria Island residence and headed to the Awolowo Road office of the commission. My wife drove in the car behind us. When we got to the EFCC office, I was told that I was under arrest. From the EFCC office, my car took my wife back home while I entered the EFCC J5 bus, sandwiched between two EFCC operatives. We took off to the Lagos airport. At the airport, the officer who arrested me returned to the office after handing me over to Mr. Ibrahim Magu, a stern-looking officer of the commission. We took the 5.00 pm Bellview flight. In the aircraft, I met my friend, Mr. G. A. Oladejobi, deputy director, banking supervision department of CBN. We discussed the new job offer I received from Devcom Bank. He congratulated me and asked that I should keep him updated on subsequent developments with respect to the new bank. The plane arrived Abuja airport at 6.00 pm. The chief of operations of EFCC, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Mr. Bala Chiroma, was there to receive Mr. Magu and me. Mr. Chiroma was a slim man. He looked mean and had a nononsense mien. I was to later realise that his apparent frailty belied his fiery personality, uncommon strength, and authority at the commission. I greeted him but he barely answered. We drove in Mr. Chiroma’s car to the EFCC office. The official car from Liberty Bank, Abuja Branch, was at the airport but my colleague, Mr. Ibrahim Yaro, who came to await my arrival, kept a decent distance.

When we arrived at the EFCC office in Abuja, a stone’s throw from the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, I was thrown into the interrogation room and given the paper on which to write my statement. I was cautioned that I was not being forced to make any statement but whatever I wrote could be used against me in a court of law. Three EFCC operatives, Messrs Ibrahim Magu, Bamanga Bello, and Sunday Musa, surrounded me as I was writing my statement. They were detailed to ensure that my statement was acceptable to the commission. To assist the process, I was shown a document with my signature on it and asked if I was the one who signed the document. I answered in the affirmative and explained that it was my job to do so. The document before me was an Allstates internal memo dated 20/12/1999. It was written by Mr. A. Awe Odesa, then deputy General Manager, northern operations in Allstates and addressed to the executive director, national banking group which was then my official title in the bank. I supervised the retail branches in Allstates Trust Bank at the time. In the memo, titled “Re: Ebenezer Retnan Ventures”, Mr. Odesa wrote thus: ‘‘Please, find attached completed application forms for a high networth individual who is requesting waivers on all other requirements. He hopes to open the account in Abuja. He is well known to me and is recommended for approval. Regards. Signed.” On this request, I wrote ‘‘Approved’’ and signed it. That was the approval that made me a guest of the EFCC.

In my statement, I stated that the approval was in line with the Allstates account opening procedure. I did not need to know the customer to grant an approval the way I did. An approval to open an account was different from an approval to operate the account. The responsibility to identify the individual customer had been assumed by Mr. Odesa who marketed the customer. He had identified the customer and I did not need to do an independent identification. The EFCC operatives asked me to include the successful trip I made to Jos to market the customer. I replied that I never visited Jos to see the customer. For much of the time, I did not know who the customer was. But my colleague knew him. I reminded the commission that the customer had an Account officer and a branch manager, and the two staff plus Mr. Odesa, were the staff who should be interrogated, not me. I said the deputy General Manager was a very senior officer of the bank and his recommendation was logical and within the guidelines of the bank. I said the customer we were talking about was resident in Jos and opened the account in Abuja and I did not live in any of these cities. I said I did not visit the customer to initiate the banking relationship and the staff who visited him should be the one to explain, not me. Mr. Bello, who had apparently worked in a bank, suggested that I should write my statement in a way that would be useful to the commission. I then added in my statement that “the investigator had asked me to write the statement to say that the account was opened by me from my Lagos office.” I was

asked to remove that addition. I rephrased it to read that my approval only confirmed that the account opening exercise should go ahead. The banking rule, also applicable in Allstates, was that deposits paid into a new customer’s account could not be withdrawn until all the requirements identified by the bank’s controller were provided. Neither Mr. Odesa nor I was the bank’s controller. The practice was that a new account could be opened but not freely operated.

When I noted that the documents on Ebenezer Retnan Ventures before me were too scanty and that some papers must have been removed, Mr. Magu threatened to detain me if I did not answer the questions to his satisfaction. On three different occasions, the interrogation process broke down because of the undue pressure that was being piled on me. Magu then produced a CBN cheque of N1.161 billion and added that I was one of those who facilitated the withdrawal of the fund by Mr. Joshua Dariye, governor of Plateau State. I explained that I didn’t know anything about the money that was withdrawn, that the question should be referred to the bank’s branch manager and Managing Director at the time. I informed my interrogators that I was no longer in charge of branches at the time of the withdrawal and I couldn’t have known about the transaction. I was asked to list the bank accounts I owned wherever they were in the world. I did. My statement was to the point that I did not commit any infraction in opening the account in question. I actually thought the EFCC was serious about finding out the truth of the situation and believed that I would be allowed to go home that evening.

Meanwhile, Chief Anenih had arrived at the commission’s office and had gone in to speak to the officer-in-charge of my case. Later, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, chairman of the commission, came to the office. Chief Anenih had earlier talked with him on the phone. I was boasting within me that there was no way I could sleep in the EFCC cell on account of this case. I was relying on the intimidating influence of Chief Anenih, my uncle and godfather. At about 11.30 pm, the officer on duty walked up to me, and said that he wanted to lock up and sleep. I said that I was expecting to be released. He laughed at me and said his instruction was to send me to the cell. My hope was dashed. Mr. Ribadu was ready to make a media show of the bankers in his net.

A few minutes later, I was led into the detention centre of the EFCC. It was the boys’ quarter annex behind the main office building. As I entered the room, I met my former colleagues at Allstates Trust Bank. They were on the floor, sitting on mattresses joking animatedly. I did not know they were already there. Here was Duate Iyabi, Managing Director of International Trust Bank (ITB) and former Managing Director of Allstates, Mr. Awe Odesa, Mr. Sam Osivemu, Allstates’ Abuja branch manager and Adonye Roberts, an officer of Allstates. I was given my own mattress. Fortunately, the room was air-conditioned. Iyabi, Odesa and I and another EFCC guest lived in the room during the period of my detention while Osivemu and Roberts were in another room with a different batch of detainees. My colleagues were surprised that I was being locked up with them because everyone had expected that Chief Anenih would prevail on the EFCC to release me. The captain of our executive room was an urbane businessman, the erudite Alhaji Muftah, who had been arrested for an offence unrelated to the Joshua Dariye matter. EFCC had successfully gathered everybody. I inquired about Mrs. Dorothy Uko, Allstates’ Abuja Area Manager. I was told she was pregnant, that she fainted whenever she was brought up for questioning and was always rushed back to the hospital. That was clever of Mrs. Uko, the Area manager, who was actually the contact person on the account. She later became a prosecution witness. We had our phones and could secretly communicate with our loved ones. We kept in touch with the world outside. But making phone calls in the cell was an act of defiance. Back in Lagos, the annual Edo College Old Boys Association Dinner, where I was to be honoured as the Distinguished Old Boy of the Year, continued as planned. My wife represented me at the occasion. It was at the ceremony that she whispered to Prince Nduka Obaigbena, publisher of Thisday newspapers that EFCC had arrested me over an account operated in Allstates by the Plateau State Governor, Joshua Dariye. At this point the night was already far gone. We all knocked off to sleep as we wished, snoring, each of us oblivious of the sleeping postures we adopted. In the middle of the night, you would discover that a blanket that was on the left-hand side was somehow flung to the extreme right-hand side of the room. Sleep is truly the brother of death.

The next day, Sunday, December 5, 2004, I woke up in detention. Chief Anenih had sent me some clothes and toiletries. His steward brought me food for breakfast. This pattern of bringing food (breakfast, lunch and dinner) from Chief Anenih’s residence continued until I left the EFCC cell. On this Sunday, a lot of hush-hush activities were taking place in the EFCC office complex. Several EFCC staff came to the office and everybody appeared to be very busy. With the gate to our cell still locked, we could only talk to others through the metal barricades. It was surprising to know how much we yearned to be able to walk round the premises. I never knew that the freedom to even walk round one’s private residence was a privilege. It was at 11.00 am that the gate to the cell was opened. Food was brought to us by staff of Allstates Trust Bank, Liberty Bank, and International Trust Bank, in addition to the food from Chief Anenih’s and Alhaji Muftah’s homes. We always had enough to eat.

Meanwhile, the EFCC operatives still had a lot of questions to ask. My colleagues were re-called to the interrogation room for more questioning. Later, two heavilybuilt EFCC operatives walked into our room. Reports had reached them that we were using our phones freely. They said we needed to be checked. They asked us to surrender our phones voluntarily. They said the room would be searched thereafter to see if any phone was hidden by anyone. We were warned that if a phone was found, it would be seized, and the owner would be moved into solitary confinement. I had hidden my phone and when I saw my colleagues bringing out their hidden phones, I quickly volunteered to get mine. That was how we lost the use of our phones and didn’t get them back until the court granted us bail. However, we were still able to make phone calls because an underground channel developed to replace our seized phones.

In the morning of Monday, December 6, 2004, it became clear why the previous day was so busy. EFCC had arranged to arraign us in court on Tuesday, December 7, 2004 in Kaduna, a city that is a three-hour drive from Abuja. By Monday 4.00 pm, EFCC officers were ready for the trip . We were bundled into a J-5 bus with two police escort vans. The previous day, my wife had sent some clothes and shoes to me from Lagos. We arrived in Kaduna by 8.00 pm and were driven to Kaballa Doki Police Station. There, every valuable item, like money, wrist watches, shoes and underwears, were taken from us. Allstates Trust Bank staff at the Kaduna Branch were waiting for us with food and water. Now and again, the EFCC team under Mr. Chiroma would come in to check on us. The police allowed us to stay in the outer office for some time but by 10.00 pm, they ordered us into the cell. The cell was at the end of a long hallway. There were three rooms, without windows, with each room having a direct access to an open toilet with putrefying smell. Our room was opposite the toilet, with smell of urine everywhere. Big remnants of excreta that could not be flushed were blocking the toilet. The extremely offensive odour never stopped for a second. We had a big bottle of whiskey, which we gulped to enable us sleep. We sprayed some drink around the room to kill the smell and poured the rest in the toilet, all to no relief. We lit a mosquito coil to change the smell which, surprisingly, helped us to doze off. When sleep came, the odour mattered little. By allowing us access to whiskey and mosquito coil, the police officers were apparently kind to us but, as we were later to discover, the good treatment was exceptional.

We woke up early in the morning of December 7. Kaduna branch staff of Allstates Trust Bank brought breakfast, clothes, ties, and jacket for anyone who needed them. We were hardly ready as we were hurried into the J-5 bus waiting to take us to the court premises. We were looking harassed, unshaven, and appeared like common criminals who had just been flushed out of their hideout. As we entered the bus, the police officer fixed handcuffs on our wrists and kept the cuffs on us until we got to the premises of the Federal High Court in Kaduna. It was strange that we would be handcuffed like common criminals for an unproven offence bordering on verification of the identity of a bank customer. It was truly an overkill. One handcuff was used for two persons. As we alighted from the bus at the court premises, Mr. Chiroma took off the handcuffs on all of us. I thanked him for not humiliating us further. He said that he removed the handcuffs because they didn’t have enough. Then I knew it could be worse next time. I was glad anyway and, as luck would have it, we did not encounter any crowd in the court premises. There was no outside audience. We believed Mr. Chiroma would have been very pleased to see us photographed in handcuffs. However, as we entered the courtroom, it was surprisingly fully packed with lawyers, media men, photographers, and TV cameras. The courtroom had journalists from several Nigerian newspapers, television stations like Channels, Nigeria Television Authority, Afirca Independent Television, and Independent Television. Foreign media crew from the Cable News Network (CNN), British Broadcasting Corporation, and Voice of America were also there. If Mr. Chiroma had known that the court house was that full, he probably would have led us into the courtroom in handcuffs, despite not having enough. We were led to the front row beside the lawyers and, by 9.00 am, the arrival of Hon. Justice Abdullai Liman was announced. Everyone stood up as he entered the court room. He sat down and called the case.

One after another, we were called to the dock to take our pleas. The 1st accused was Chief Joshua Chibi Dariye, Governor of Plateau state, followed by Awe Odesa as 2nd accused, Dorothy Uko 3rd accused, Duate P. Iyabi 4th accused, Lawson A. Omokhodion 5th accused, Allstates Trust Bank Plc 6th accused and Adonye Roberts 7th accused. Governor Dariye and Mrs. Dorothy Uko were not in court. We were then asked, in turn, if we were guilty or not guilty of the charges. We had been schooled to simply answer in the negative. I answered not guilty.