Posted by From Sufuyan Ojeifo in Abuja on
The Economic and Fina-ncial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has frozen two separate accounts containing a whopping N1 billion.....
The Economic and Fina-ncial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has frozen two separate accounts containing a whopping N1 billion, which allegedly belong to a former Director of Finance and Accounts at the Independent National Ele-ctoral Commission (INEC), Mr. Olusegun Akanni, who died last year.
The accounts, according to EFCC sources will remain frozen until investigations on them are concluded.
Akanni died along with 116 other passengers in the Bellview aircraft, which crashed at Lisa Village in Ogun State on October 23, 2005.
The accounts, investigations further revealed, were in two different banks and the money was put in fixed deposits in the sums of N600m and N400m.
The EFCC, THISDAY also gathered, acted on a petition sent to it by an Abuja-based lawyer, Mr. Amobi Nzelu.
When contacted, Head of Media and Publicity of the commission, Mr. Osita Nwajah, confirmed the involvement of the commission in the matter.
He told THISDAY yesterday that 'We (EFCC) are on it and investigations have gone very far. Hopefully, we may soon reach a point where we may consider prosecution".
Nzelu is acting for one of the two wives of Akanni in a petition, numbered FCT/HC /Pet/114/06 'for declaration for a decree of nullity of a void marriage".
Both wives have their eyes set on the estate of the late INEC director.
Nzelu confirmed that he sent a petition to the EFCC and the INEC, where Akanni was a director until the time he died in the crash last year.
The petition, which copy could not be obtained by THISDAY, was to bring to the knowledge of the two commissions the existence of the money, which is one of the subjects of a subsisting litigation.
The two wives of the late INEC director are, as learnt, locked in a legal battle to determine their status and rights to his estate.
When THISDAY met with Nzelu in his office, he said he was working towards an 'amicable resolution" of the issue between the two wives.
But a copy of his (Nzelu's) reply on behalf of one of the wives to a petition for nullity of a void marriage by the other wife, which THISDAY obtained from sources close to INEC, disclosed some of the 'tremendous wealth", which the late Akanni allegedly acquired while working as Director of Finance and Accounts at the Commission.
Details of items of property and money listed in the 'respondent's reply" have been a subject of discussion among staff members in INEC.
The suits instituted by the wives of Akanni at the Abuja High Court at Lugbe, have forced his alleged wealth into the public sphere.
When contacted to confirm whether INEC is in the know of the said petition by Nzelu, the frozen N1billion and details of other wealth allegedly acquired by the late Akanni while working at INEC, Director of Public Affairs, Pastor Segun Adeogun, told THISDAY that he would not want to be drawn into the private affairs of the late director.