The National Youth Council of Nigeria on Sunday said it had traced £1.558m (N825m) to a United Kingdom account allegedly owned by the embattled former chairman, House of Representatives’ Committee on Appropriations, Abdulmumin Jibrin.
The Head of the Anti-corruption unit of the NYCN, Ifeanyi Okonkwo, said this in an e-mail he sent to The Punch in Abuja.
When contacted on the telephone, Mr. Ikenga Ugochinyere, who identified himself as the President of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, said, “The statement came from our anti-corruption unit. Like you can see from the documents attached, we received the information from a reliable source in the UK.”
Okonkwo said the operation of the accounts contravened existing Nigerian laws on the conduct of elected and appointed public officers.
The group said documents it obtained from the UK revealed that Jibrin allegedly “owns and operates the said account domiciled in ING Bank Channels Island, United Kingdom.”
“Jibrin opened the account with his address at 453 Crank brook Road, Ilford Essex IG2 6EW.
“Details of the account statement obtained by some lawyers in the UK show that Jibrin has a total £1.558m (approximately N825m) in the account between June 1, 2016 and June 30, 2016.”
The group claimed that Jibrin withdrew the sum of £623.44 pounds within the one month period bringing the balance in the account to £1.376, 193.84 British pounds.
“Jibrin’s ownership of foreign account contravenes the provisions of the 1999 Constitution which bars public officers from owning and operating foreign account,” the group added.
Attempts to get a reaction from Jibrin were unsuccessful. He neither picked nor returned any of the calls put through to him.