Akwa Ibom State Governor, Dr. Godswill Akpabio, is battling hard to extricate himself from a messy financial scam in a scenario that is reminiscent of James Onanefe Ibori and his mistress, Mrs. Uzoamaka Okoronkwo-Unigbo, both of whom are facing money-laundering charges in Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
Dr. Akpabio Governor and his Bank PHB trusted friend, Mrs. Emem Etuk, a Deputy General Manager with Platinum Habib Bank (Bank PHB) Victoria Island Branch (3) in Lagos, risk imminent prosecution unless they can find a way to halt the current police investigation into a financial deal gone burst.
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While investigations involving alleged trans-border money laundering activities of Mrs. Etuk, nee Usoro, on behalf of the philanderer-governor are continuing, one of the local deals brokered by the ex-Zenith Bank Manager went sour three weeks ago at the local wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos. The incident, which has eluded public attention as a result of frantic efforts by both the Akwa Ibom State Government House and the management of Bank PHB, is however rearing its ugly head as those disturbed by the seeming compromise in the handling of the matter by relevant government agencies have vowed to see that justice is done.
Information available to us show that at exactly 9.00am on 11th November 2009, Mrs. Etuk was apprehended at the General Aviation Terminal of the Murtala Muhammed Airport during her screening by airport security as she prepared to board an Arik plane to Abuja.
The constant bleeping of the scanner as her hand luggage rolled through attracted the attention of the security personnel who insisted on physically checking its contents. Her resistance received no sympathy. When they opened the bag, the sight of neatly stacked wads of dollars raised several eye brows and Mrs. Etuk was subjected to rounds of questioning to explain her mission to Abuja with $3.1 million.
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Her alleged uncooperative attitude saw the issue escalated to the airport police command where she was detained and a statement obtained from her. From the airport police, she was transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department, Beesam, Mafoluku, where she was further detained. According to investigations at the airport command of the police, Mrs. Etuk was kept in police custody from the date of her arrest for two weeks.
Mrs. Etuk sustained her argument of innocence, arguing that she was acting officially on behalf of Bank PHB. And fearing the opprobrium Etuk’s admission to laundering charges would bring to it along with the certainty the governor would close the Akwa Ibom State Government’s account domiciled with it and managed by Mrs. Etuk, Bank PHB rose stoutly in her support.
There were other interesting scenarios. Among them, Mrs. Etuk’s husband, who is a special adviser to the governor on Utilities, also risked losing his job if his wife failed to protect the governor and keep him out of the case by all means possible.
For these reasons, among many others, the bank offered the police and other interested security outfits huge sums of money to sustain Mrs. Etuk’s defence and let her off the hook without further action or investigation. The “defence” had been that she was actually taking the about half-a-billion naira in dollar denomination to Abuja on behalf of the bank to cater for foreign exchange requests from branches of the bank in the nation’s capital. It was however gathered from sources in the bank that officials of the bank charged with money transfers to Abuja and other parts of the country had moved the official funds meant for those purposes the day before Mrs. Etuk’s arrest.
Furthermore, we learnt that it is the usual practice of the bank to give a covering letter to whoever is handling cash transfer within and out of Lagos. No such letter accompanied Mrs. Etuk at the time of her arrest, and she did not produce it throughout the initial investigation and detention. Of equal interest is that such money transfers are never done by just one officer, and without some form of security.
Investigations have revealed that the sum in question might have been the interest on some huge lodgment into Bank PHB by the state government.
Attempts by an operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to hijack the case from the police were resisted on the order of the Inspector-General of Police who was said to have warned against giving the impression that the police were incompetent to handle such a case. Consequently, Mrs. Etuk and the case file were transferred to the force headquarters, Abuja on 25 November 2009 for further investigation and possible prosecution of the suspect.
Already, Campaign for Probity and Integrity, an independent watchdog group, has petitioned the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and other relevant government and non-government agencies calling for a thorough investigation of the incident.
It is not unusual for powerful politicians and policemen to resolve situations like this among themselves. Last Saturday in Ondo State, during a bye-election into the House of Representatives, Senator Gbenga Ogunniya was arrested for electoral malpractice. He was later let go, allegedly on the orders of the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ogbonnaya Onovo
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