Dr Goerge Uboh, is the chief executive officer of Panic Alert Security Systems that was engaged by the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami to trace and recover federal government funds all over the world. Dr Uboh speaks with NAIJ.com on the sleaziness and the connivance of the AGF with the banking sector mafia to frustrate the recovery of funds.
NAIJ.com: What is the latest on the controversy surrounding the asset recovery and tracing of funds for the Federal Republic of Nigeria?
Thank you for the previous interview. After that interview the president actually some people use the word queried…I would say treated my petition asking the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) to respond. When you came I was actually drafting an open letter to the president because I thought the president had not responded to or rather treated my petition to him.
Dr Goerge Uboh
Now knowing that the president has treated my petition I had to rewrite the open letter and addressed the issue that the AGF raised. I started by saying that globally and universally speaking one does not need a letter of engagement to furnish information to any law enforcement agency. I cited Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States. I asked the president to use his network to look it up. In fact you can look it up…ahhh Whistle-blowers reward in the US. Reward is given to Whistle-blowers from anywhere in the world once you give tip regarding any US company that is corrupt in your company as long as that company is trading on the SEC. That being established and I now stated that tips are received from anybody regardless of the class of the person. Whether you are jail or ex-convict. I even went further to say that even prisoners serving term give tips to law enforcement and those information are used to reduce the sentence that they are serving or outright financial reward. And that even the more revered CIA and FBI actually go to prisons to recruit brains as operatives. And I went further to say that, Sir, Mr President Buhari you were once in jail. Obasanjo was once in jail and the late Mandela was actually sentenced to life imprisonment and from there he served of South Africa.
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The issue that matter is the credibility of the information you are offering regardless of where you are offering the information from. After that I went into the crux of the matter that AGF has refused to recover the funds. I went into how the engagement vindicated me because I was able to trace funds that EFCC is hiding at access bank which I alleged a year earlier when I went to the senate. Access bank is the most culpable of the banks. Access bank expunged four years record for EFCC. So with this engagement I found out some of the monies. Of course, I found another fictitious account that EFCC is maintaining at Access bank. The EFCC uses to do their shenanigans, round tripping and pay salaries, insurance claims and all that.
NAIJ.com: Are you saying that some cabinet members of the present administration are working against the very reason why President Buhari was elected?
So it is really appalling that you guys, the cabinet members that Buhari appointed and as I stated in my open letter to Buhari that for these banks to be flouting TSA and most of your cabinet members are coming on record to say that the banks have complied with TSA.
So what are we saying? So what sort of people are we dealing with? Before we (I and Mr Abubakar Malami who is the minister of justice) disembarked he (AGF) promised to recover the funds. I went to London, delivered my speech and came back and wrote the president appraising him of my meeting with the AGF and the AGF’s promise to recover but I still craved the president’s indulgence to impress upon the AGF to recover the funds expeditiously. Because this thing has to be done in a timely fashion and I don’t want these banks to dissipate these funds. But the AGF refused to take my calls and answer my text messages and am receiving threatening phone calls. I am not saying he is the one. I never allege anything against anyone unless I have concrete proof but the point is he (AGF) has not lived up to what I call our gentle-man agreement. So, today I made a decision based on the interest of our country, Nigeria and the assertion, the position the AGF took in his letter to the president that our company based on the plain language of the engagement letter is obligated to trace, recover and remit the funds to the federal government account. Now putting aside the fact that I differed sharply on that premise because inherently speaking and by law what I know a Banker’s order is supposed to be gotten from the Magistrate to freeze those accounts. But who am I to question the chief legal officer of the country. If had said that the letter he wrote should be construed liberally to mean that our company can recover the funds and remit to the government. I have gone ahead to open four accounts with First bank called Panic Alert Security Systems/ Assets Recovery account in naira, US dollars, British pounds and Euros for the purpose of recovering these funds for onward transfer to the federal government. I have written the AGF today of my intention, the president and the banks involved to go ahead and transfer these monies to the accounts, the respective currencies for onward transfer to the federal government. Once the monies hit our accounts, we then ask the federal government to give us account numbers to transfer these monies to and of course everything will be made public.
Dr Goerge Uboh
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NAIJ.com: What then would be the last option in this case?
The last option? I would not say last. There are options and I wouldn’t say which one is the last. There is an option to go to court but the reason I don’t want to go to court is that if I am to take this matter to court I can’t discuss it anymore. It becomes subjudice. So I really want to put it before the president who was voted on that singular vouch of anti-corruption. I commend him though to the extent that he even responded because when I was fighting Larmode during President Jonathan’s regime I never got any response from him (the ex-president). But just asking Malami, the AGF to respond to me is not the only thing needed. In fact, the remedy I sought in my letter to him is for the president to call me and the AGF so that I can table what I have. He hasn’t done that. I am not going to tell the president how to go about his job but the fact remains that the common denominator here is the monies. Asking Malami to respond……I am not privy to the minutes on the letter whether it says Malami should recover but the point is that is why I am going back to him. With these letters now, the first one that I met Malami and he promised to recover and the second one that Malami has reneged on his gentle-man agreement and the need for the president to really look into this matter and show the president the ₦1.93trn that EFCC has not remitted to the federal government and the over₦23bn that is still with the banks.
Revoking this letter of engagement actually truncated the process. Tracing a ₦1bn is a tip of the iceberg. I showed Malami before I was engaged that the entire evidence that we can trace nothing less than $70bn from the banks, worst case scenario and $75bn best case scenario. That still need to be done. Those are the reasons why I need to speak with president to understand the scope of what we are talking about rather than going to China to borrow. I am not saying we should get the money from offshore but right here at home we are talking about a lot of money.
NAIJ.com: With the inconsistency in the words of Mr Malami and his actions would you be calling for his sack?
In the interest of Nigeria. Listen. When I met Malami on the plane I told Malami that look to the extent that you gave me this letter of engagement I am very grateful but your actions and inactions post engagement are incomprehensible and very shocking. And that I don’t think that he is still the same person I met before you were appointed and immediately when you were appointed AGF. Because even when I showed him the evidence of the fictitious accounts that the EFCC is maintaining at Access bank, an eight page report, he read it and I was watching his demeanour. There wasn’t anything in him to show me that he was the same man because before he was appointed I showed him evidence against EFCC and he said he was going to discuss with the president. Immediately he was appointed he was still vowing he was going to fight EFCC and that he was going to set up what I had always called a phantom committee for ….with me included in the presidential committee for assets verification to fight EFCC but he wasn’t the same person anymore.
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Again when I come out to say EFCC is a country within a country. That is what I am talking about. Now it is the AGF that I had so much hope that we are going to work together. Even the issue of him saying that I went beyond the scope, when I spelt out everything to him……how can you say I went beyond the scope?Assets tracing is like an octopus. You are tracing and you going into different areas but still within the banks. It is human beings and these organizations that deposited these monies in the banks so you have to reconcile. That was why asked in my open letter to the president where I asked Malami whose side is he on. I have gotten results, over a $1bn I traced but you are more concerned that I went beyond the scope of my engagement when the banks that we are talking about even brought the records to me and was willing to be bringing the records until they called me that they saw you and you promised to call me to soft-pedal. Of course he was the one that brought up the issue on the plane that your allegations that I saw Access bank and promised Access bank that I will call you is not true and I said you are not getting it. That I don’t need to record you and Access bank. I have the call recordings between myself and Access bank and they stated unequivocally that they have met with you and there is need for me to soft-pedal. So you need to settle with Access bank.
I also wrote the banks that there is a certain bank that has gone to the minister and that to make it easier for them I would copy the minister. If the minister does not want me to do the job again let him tell me. But he (Malami) went and put in his letter to the president that I am threatening the banks. One doesn’t need to be a cynic to understand that Malami’s loyalty lies with the banking sector mafia and not Nigeria.
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