Inside tangled web of Andrew Yakubu’s dollars
Atotal of 47,960,096 Muslims performed the annual Muslim Pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in 22 years, the General Authority for Statistics (GaStat), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has said in a report obtained by Daily Trust. The breakdown of the statistics from 1995 (1416H) to 2016 (1437H) shows that 16,027,649 Muslim males and females performed hajj from inside the Kingdom, 31,932,447 from outside the Kingdom bringing the total to 47,960,096.
The reports were obtained in e-mail exchanges and other information on the website of the agency.
While the highest number of pilgrims was recorded in 2012 with 1,408,641 domestic pilgrims and 1,752,932 from outside the Kingdom bringing the total to 3,161,573; the lowest number of pilgrims was in 1998 with a total 1,831,998 pilgrims comprising 775,268 and 1,056,730 from inside and outside the kingdom respectively.
The main foundation of the agency include implementation of
Cthe statistical work and technical supervision and regulation of the Saudi Statistics and Information Sector, as part of the tasks assigned to the General Authority for Statistics in its capacity as the only official statistical reference.
It is expected that there will be an increase of over 260,000 foreign pilgrims this year comparing with the last four years because of the lifting of the Haj quota cut imposed in 2013. There had been a 20 percent cut in the quota for foreign pilgrims coming from each country while the number of people allowed to perform hajj within the Kingdom was reduced by 50 percent to ensure the safety of pilgrims during the expansion works of the Grand Mosque in Makkah.
Chairman of the Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) Maher Jamal recently said that the Kingdom lost SR60bn or $16.2bn in four years since 2013 over the 20 percent global quota reduction in number of Muslim pilgrims for the annual pilgrimage.
Nigeria’s allocation was 92,000 until in 2013 when it was reduced to 76,000. an the $9,772, 800 USD and £74,000 seized from Engineer Andrew Yakubu, former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) be ever returned back to him? This is a question that will be answered after the epic legal battle between the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Yakubu, in a case before Justice Z. B. Abubakar sitting at the Federal High Court, Kano Division.
Already, Yakubu through his lawyers, has asked the Court to set aside the ex-parte order which ordered the interim forfeiture. The order, according to him, was made without jurisdiction.
A senior lawyer who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the first issue is to discover whether the trial Court has jurisdiction to try the case. According to him, the alleged offence was committed in Abuja while the case is been tried in Kano where the EFCC filed for forfeiture.
Special Assistant to the President on Prosecution, Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, told
that the order is interim and not absolute because the EFCC is still investigating, adding that it will be absolute after trial. He mentioned however that there must be a charge before an order for attachment and forfeiture. He added that keeping money at home is a crime.
On his part, Yakubu’s lawyer Ahmed Raji said that there is no prima facie evidence to warrant the forfeiture. His words: “Does the mere fact that EFCC find cash on you make you a thief ? Nobody says his money is missing.”
Court documents obtained by our correspondent reveals that it is the EFCC that should apply for forfeiture and attachment, but it is the FG that applied in this case. It was gathered that the Section 29 of the EFCC Act on forfeiture has been pronounced unconstitutional by the Court of Appeal in the case of Nwaigwe Vs. FGN (2009) 16 NWLR (Pt. 1166).
The Appeal court went further to declare the provision of that section as null and void, adding that that dictatorship like provision was an unfortunate misplacement in our laws under democratic governance. There also has been no appeal against this decision, making it binding on the FG since there has been no appeal. So on what basis is the money been forfeited? Some stakeholders said that under EFCC Act, there is a presumption that the money was stolen or came from illicit sources.
It was alleged the whistle-blower was one of his close relations who needed to pay school fees but help was not forthcoming from members of the family.
On arrival, 8 February, 2017 Yakubu surrendered himself to the EFCC based on invitation without being arrested and he was subsequently granted administrative bail. On Friday 10 the EFCC had prepared the application for forfeiture which was filed on Monday 13 February and the EFCC proceeded to the Court pursuant to Section 28 and 29 of the EFCC Act 2004, filed a motion ex parte in which only one party (FG) was heard in the absence of the other party (Yakubu).
It was granted the next day, Tuesday 14, 2017. Ruling on the ex parte, the court ordered an interim forfeiture to the FG of the $9.7 million and 74, 000 pounds sterling already in the custody of the EFCC.
An interim injunction, Daily Trust gathered, is one granted to preserve the status quo until a named date or until further order or until the other party can be heard. It is granted in situations of real extreme urgency and not self-induced urgency. Interim injunction is not granted as a matter of course because the power of the Court to grant it is of extraordinary jurisdiction. It also has a very short lifespan as the Court is not permitted to delve into contentious issues at the hearing of an ex parte motion.
According to the Court of Appeal in Chief Land Officer vs. Alor (1991) 4 NWLR (Pt. 187) it is an improper exercise of jurisdiction to make an interim order on an ex parte application to last until the final determination of the substantive action. Investigation revealed that the order of interim forfeiture was handed down after the Court was informed in an affidavit deposed to by Adamu Waziri, an operative of the EFCC of the existence of “some suspicious huge unaccountable foreign currency” being harboured in Sabon Tasha.
Yakubu, in his account, said that the money recovered by the EFCC from his safe were received by him as gifts and goodwill by well-wishers and friends particularly during celebrations and ceremonies he hosted and seasonal goodwill that he started saving since 2010. The EFCC on its part stated that their investigation revealed that the said money was suspected to be proceeds of illegal and unlawful activities of the former NNPC boss during the period between 2010 and 2014. But as the web gets more tangled, Nigerians wait for final judgement with bated breath.