The Senate yesterday initiated a move that could lead to an investigation into a case of the alleged disappearance of $27 million proceeds realised from the sale of Nigerian property in New York.
The allegation was contained in a petition written by one Daniel Elombah, on behalf of Transform Nigeria Citizen Initiative, a non-governmental organization.
In his petition to the upper chamber of the National Assembly, Elombah called the attention of the Senate President, Senator David Mark, to the alleged embezzlement of funds by Dr. George Obiozor, who was the Nigerian Ambassador to the United States of America at the time.
He said that in view of the development that took place between 2004 and 2009, it was imperative for lawmakers to undertake immediate investigation into the disappearance of the said funds realized from the sale of the assets in the U.S.
Elombah said: “Available records showed that between 2004 and the year 2007, the Embassy of Nigeria sold four prime property of the Nigerian Government located in Washington D.C. and Maryland. It also commenced sale of a fifth property located in San Francisco, California.
“For the sale of those property, the government of Nigeria retained the services of ECULAW law firm. Out of those sales, Nigeria realized the sum of approximately $27 million. All funds realized from these sales, except those set aside as fees, were remitted to the Embassy of Nigeria in Washington D.C”.
According to the petitioner, the law firm whose services were solicited to advise the embassy on the sale of the property met with Embassy officials at the embassy premises in Washington, thereby confirming that the alleged transaction took place.
“M&T Bank had been the bank the embassy used for other transactions and had about three different accounts with that bank. It was confirmed in clear terms that their bank was holding huge deposits comprising the proceeds of the sales of these property.
“This remained the position after Ambassador George Obiozor had returned to Nigeria upon completing his service in Washington. Those huge funds were lodged in Washington rather than being remitted to Nigeria.
“Any honest observer of these events would suppose it would be for only a short period of time pending a brief protocol necessary for the remittance of those funds to the Nigerian treasury. However and surprisingly, the Embassy of Nigeria left that money in Washington partly because it yielded substantial monthly interests, which the embassy officials would never have to account for”.
The petitioner told the Senate that the money which was lodged in the accounts were nowhere to be found between Adefuye’s coming in as Ambassador until March 2012.
He added: “This became clear when the M&T Bank was forced to close the bank accounts of Nigerian Embassy and to terminate all banking relations with the embassy at the beginning of 2012.
“Since March 2012, there has not been any explanation of what happened to the millions of dollars that were realized from the sale of the embassy property in the US, which were in the bank accounts at the time Ambassador Adefuye assumed office as the Ambassador to Washington.”
Those who appeared on Thursday before the Committee on Foreign Affairs in connection with the matter were Dr. George Obiozor, Prof. Joy Ogwu, Foreign Affairs Minister, Professor Gbenga Ashiru, and the current Ambassador to the United States, Ade Adefuye.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Matthew Nwagwu, confirmed that there was, as a matter of fact, allegations of embezzlement before the committee before newsmen were asked out of the hearing room.
He said: “It is alleged that the resources were squandered by embassy officials. Ours is to give you a chance to address the committee, to tell us what you know about the administration and management of the fund within your tenure from 2004 till date.
“There is a petition before the committee on the issue. We have the petition and we are taking it on the face value. We are giving this opportunity to the minister and ambassador to explain what happened.
“We are not a court of law, you are not on trial. We just want to keep the records straight.”
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