by Azeez Adeniyi

Another N8.4 billion has been uncovered by the government in a bank account without signatories after a whistleblower called the attention of operatives to the funds, The Nation reports.

According to the newspaper, huge deposits from unknown sources were made to the account domiciled with Ecobank.

It was learnt that a telecommunications company has gone to court, claiming ownership of the money.

It was also gathered that the government has filed an ex parte motion to place it under temporary assets forfeiture.

A source involved in the investigation said, “A whistle-blower alerted the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, leading to the involvement of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission( EFCC) in the investigation.

“The probe of the account by detectives showed that the funds were routed through the account of a telecoms giant but there was no disclosure of the signatories to the account.

“Also, the list of depositors into the account was unknown but the sequence of deposits was tracked by detectives.”

The source confirmed that an ex -parte application had been filed at the Federal High Court 11 in Lagos, presided over by Justice Abdulazeez Anka, to recover the cash under temporary forfeiture.

Another source said investigations revealed that cash paid into the account could be over N10billlion.

The source added, “Detectives stumbled on separate deposit of N5billion and N4billion. But investigation is at present concentrated on the recovery of N8.4billion, which was changed to dollars and probably wired into some accounts abroad.

“A telecommunications giant has approached the court to claim the ownership of the cash.

“We have been demanding for the list of signatories to this account but it is yet to be provided.”

Recall that the whistleblower policy had led to the recovery of US$151 million and N8billion.

Azeez