Photo: EFCC seizes N872m houses from ex FCT minister, Bala Mohammed and his son

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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has seized four
houses worth N872 million belonging to former FCT Minister, Bala
Mohammed, and his son, Shamsudeen Bala, The Nation reports.

The ex-minister is being investigated for alleged fictitious contracts of about N1billion, allocation of 12 choice plots worth
billions of Naira and 37 other commercial plots of land worth about N8 billion to his suspected front named Tariq Hammoud as well as the controversial N1 trillion Abuja land swap

More than 16 companies linked with fictitious contracts awarded
by Bala had been under surveillance and their owners grilled by
EFCC.

The anti-graft agency quizzed Shamsudeen, Hammoud and top
directors of the Federal Capital Territory administration,
including that of Treasury, Ibrahim Bomoi; Land, Babayo
Mainasara, and Abuja Geographical Information Service (AGIS),
Ms Jamila Tangaza.

Tangaza is currently in detention and battling for bail. She has
been linked to N800 million questionable contracts to her
personal firm apart from benefiting from plots of land from the
ex-minister. According to investigations, the ongoing probe of
the ex-minister followed petitions against him, including
complaints pending since 2013. After doing a preliminary
investigations, EFCC obtained an interim forfeiture order to
confiscate a N650 million house at 1 and 3, Mariam Mukhtar
Street, Asokoro. The same forfeiture order was secured to seize
the ex-minister’s son three duplexes costing about N222 million
in the Apo Area of AAbuja.

An EFCC source who spoke on condition of anonymity said“We
are probing the immediate past Minister of FCT on many allegations against him, including award of N1 billion fictitious
contracts; abuse of office by allocating 12 choice plots to his son
and 37 other commercial plots worth about N8 billion to Hammoud, who is suspected to be his front; land swap, among
others. Some of the petitions against Bala Mohammed had been
pending since 2013. Initial findings showed that the ex-minister
used fictitious companies to award contracts worth N1 billion in
FCT. In one instance, a man with three companies was allowed
to bid for one slot. About 16 companies used for fictitious contracts are under investigation because they did not supply
items credited to them. We have also uncovered how Bala
allocated plots of land to his friends, business partners. For
examples, he allocated 12 plots of land to his son, Shamsudeen,
and 37 commercial plots of land to his business front called
Tariq Hammoud. Some of those quizzed so far confessed that
Bala used unconventional methods in raking illicit funds and
laundering same. Each time the ex-minister allocated a plot of
land, he would find out the market value and ask you to pay half
of the amount to him in cash. For instance if a plot of land was
N2 billion, Bala would ask for N1 billion cash from the prospective buyer. He was smart in collecting cash. But the EFCC has traced allocation of 37 commercial plots to Hammoud and how N8billion was made from it. In fact, we saw a proposal by Tariq Hammoud to sell some of the plots. So far, our operatives have arrested, detained and quizzed Shamsudeen. He is presently on administrative bail. We have also interrogated Hammoud.”

Speaking further the source said: “Based on substantial findings,
we approached the court to obtain an interim forfeiture order to
seize a N650million from the ex-FCT Minister. What happened
was that the former minister allocated some plots of land to Aso
Savings and they bought the N650 million house for him at Nos.
1 and 3, Mariam Mukhtar Street, Asokoro District. The EFCC has
confiscated three duplexes totalling N222million which were
acquired by the ex-minister’s son. We invoked sections 28 and
34 of the EFCC (Establishment Act) 2004 and Section 13(1) of
the Federal High Court Act, 2004 which empower the anti-graft
agency to invoke Interim Assets Forfeiture Clause. Section 28 of
the EFCC Act reads: ‘Where a person is arrested for an offence
under this Act, the Commission shall immediately trace and
attach all the assets and properties of the person acquired as a
result of such economic or financial crime and shall thereafter
cause to be obtained an interim attachment order from the
Court.’”

On the fate of the ex-minister, the source said: “We are
investigating him, we are yet to invite him for questioning.
Certainly, we are closing in on him.”

The source added that EFCC had grilled top directors of the FCT
administration. “As for Ms Jamila Tangaza, we arrested and
detained her because she was connected with the land scam
and abuse of office. The ex-minister asked her to resign her
appointment with BBC and appointed her as a Senior Special
Assistant on Media and Information. But Bala allocated some
plots of land to her to sell in order to acquire a mansion in
Asokoro District too. Her house was allegedly worth N158million. Also, Jamila allegedly abused her office by awarding N800million contracts to her company which is called Songbird Multimedia. Her case was interesting. When she registered the company with the Corporate Affairs Commission, she used a fictitious name as the CEO of the company but she is the sole signatory to the company’s account and her phone number is the point of contact with the firm. We have sent her signature on CAC document and other specimen signatures collected from her to a forensic laboratory. Following a court order, we detained her in the past few days but as at Friday, she was pleading that we should grant her bail. We are looking into her request.”

The top source denied insinuations that the ex-BBC correspondent was handcuffed when she was taken to her office for a search.

“You can verify from her what transpired. From custody in
EFCC, we went with her to her office to recover some documents. We used the EFCC bus but along the way, she begged us to park the bus away from the vicinity of AGIS where she is a director. She did not want her staff and others to notice that she was brought to the office by EFCC team. We obliged her request by parking outside AGIS. We also didn’t allow policemen in uniform to follow her to the office. We assigned plain-clothe operatives and even asked her if she wanted the only lady in our team to follow her so that Jamila can blend with the crowd in AGIS without anyone suspecting anything. She said all plain clothe operatives can follow her. We did not put her in handcuffs. This is the extent we went based on her request to protect her reputation and integrity. The story of Jamila being handcuffed was rubbish.”

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