Mr Paul Chukwuma, the Chief Executive Officer of Fides Et Ratio Academy Limited, on Thursday begged a Federal High Court in Abuja to set aside the interim forfeiture order against his 378, 000 dollars and a Mercedes Benz GLS 600 Maybach.
Chukwuma, represented by Chief Afam Osigwe, SAN, his counsel, urged Justice Emeka Nwite to vacate the order in the interest of justice.
Justice Nwite had, on Jan. 6, ordered a temporary forfeiture of the 378, 000 dollars and a Mercedes Benz GLS 600 Maybach to the Federal Government.
The judge, in a ruling, made the order after Osuobeni Akponimisingha, counsel for the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), moved a motion ex-parte to the effect.
The judge, who granted the motion, also directed the commission to publish the notice in a national daily for interested person(s) to show cause why the cash and the vehicle should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.
The matter was then adjourned until Feb. 20 for report of compliance and for interested person(s) to show cause.
When the matter was called on Thursday, Akponimisingha informed the court that in compliance with the Jan. 6 order, the commission had filed an affidavit of compliance.
The lawyer said the anti-graft agency had published the order in two national dailies; Punch and Daily Trust, of Jan. 27.
According to him, the newspapers are marked as Exhibit ICPC 1 and Exhibit 2.
Responding, Osigwe told the court that a motion on notice was filed on behalf of Chukwuma on Jan. 9, seeking an order of court setting aside the interim forfeiture order.
The senior lawyer said the application was supported by a 37-page affidavit.
“We have seven documents attached as exhibits 1 to 7. We also filed a further affidavit of nine paragraphs with a written address in line with the rules of the court,” he said.
Osigwe urged the court to set aside the Jan. 6 order made against his client.
Adumbrating, the lawyer argued that the order obtained by the ICPC was an abuse of court process.
He submitted that the commission got the.order after a charge had already been filed against Chukwuma in a sister court.
According to him, the order ought to be made by the court where the charge was filed.
“I refer your lordship to Exhibit ICPC 20 which is the charge assigned to Court 12.
“The prosecution should have taken the application to court 12 and not here,” he said.
He further argued that there was no ground placed before the court by the prosecution to show that his client was not entitled to the relief sought.
“Particularly in Paragrogh 4U, the prosecution admitted that they did training.
“TETFund gave them who to train. So they don’t deal with the universities, they deal with the beneficiaries,” he said.
He said though a total number of 502 beneficiaries were ought to have been trained in Category II, if the defendants’ trained 391, such should not be tagged as act of money laundering since those were the participants that made themselves available.
Besides, Osigwe said the duration for the training had not elapsed, hence, the need to unblock the company’s account to enable them do the needful.
He said buying a Mercedes vehicle to aid their operations should not be regarded as money laundering.
The lawyer urged the court to vacate the order and order the release of his client’s money to enable them honour their obligation with the foreign partners.
Akponimisingha, however, disagreed with Osigwe’s submission.
He argued that Osigwe should have brought all the arguments in their motion so that he could formally respond to each of the points.
The ICPC lawyer said a six-paragraph counter affidavit was filed in opposition to Chukwuma’s application.
“We have two exhibits annexed as Exhibits ICPC 1 and ICPC 2.
“Exhibit ICPC I is the order of this court made on 6th of January, 2025. Exhibit ICPC 2 is an email communication with Mr Taiwo Adeniyi with Prof. Dr. Klaus Stierstorfer.”
He said a written address was also filed in urging the court to dismiss the motion.
Akponimisingha asked rhetorically that if 391 were trained out of 502 participants scheduled for the physical training, “where are the DTAs of those who did not partake in the training?”
The lawyer, who said the training was divided into online and physical, queried the rational of the defendants purchasing a N300 million car for the project supervision.
Justice Nwite fixed April 3 for ruling on the application.
The commission asked that money and the vehicle were said to be proceeds of unlawful activities.
In the motion ex-parte marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1982/V/2024 and filed by the ICPC Chairman himself, Dr Musa Aliyu, SAN; Chukwuma, Prof Dr Klaus Stierstorfer, and Fides Et Ratio Academy Limited were named as 1st to 3rd defendants respectively.
Aliyu, in the motion, sought an order temporarily forfeiting the sum of 378,000 dollars being funds restricted vide Post No Debit Order placed in the Zenith Bank Account of Fides Et Ratio Academy Limited-5074703084.
He also sought an order “temporarily forfeiting the movable property to wit: MERCEDES BENZ GLS 600 MAYBACH” to Federal Government.
He prayed the court for an order directing the commission to publish a notice in any national newspaper for interested person(s) to show cause why the said property should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Aliyu further sought an order directing the anti-corruption commission to open an escrow (interest yielding) account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the name of the ICPC and Fides Et Ratio Academy Limited in respect of the alleged $378,000.00.
Giving 10 grounds why the application should be granted, the ICPC chair said the victims of the alleged crime of the respondents is the Federal Government of Nigeria and its citizens who honestly and diligently pay their taxes as and when due.
He said the alleged unlawful activities of the respondents had continued to cause untold hardship on honest Nigerians, especially, students of tertiary institutions.
According to him, without an order of this honourable court, the applicant cannot legally recover the alleged moveable property already restricted vide Post-No-Debit Order into the commission’s recovery account domiciled with CBN for proper use for the benefit of honest Nigerians.
Idris Abubakar, a litigation officer, Legal Services Department, ICPC, in the affidavit he deposed to, said the commission received a petition alleging that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) allegedly made payment to a contractor for unexecuted project.
He said during the investigation, it was discovered that TETFund entered into a memorandum of understanding with two companies to provide ICT services to tertiary institutions, including universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
He, however, alleged that TETFund jettisoned the conditions given by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) and went ahead to engage Fides Et Ratio Academy Limited.
Abubakar averred “that TETFund, through its Executive Secretary, secured approval in the sums of N8,600,000,000.00; N3,550,000,000.00 and N3,100,000,000.00, and guidelines for ICT support services for universities, polytechnics and colleges of education from the then president, President Mohammadu Buhari, GCFR.”
He said following the approval of the sums and guidelines, TETFund under the hand of its ICT Director, Joseph Odo, wrote a letter to all vice chancellors, rectors and provosts of public universities, polytechnics and colleges of education requesting for their readiness to commit 50 per cent of their ICT support intervention funds to the programme.
“TETFund, in fragrant disregard for extant procurement procedures, received proposal from Fides Et Ratio Academy Limited for capacity building ICT related course for the public universities, polytechnics and colleges of education,” he said.
The officer said the academy was engaged to provide the services in two phases to the institutions vide a letter dated May 22, 2023.
According to him, the services to be provided by Fides Et Ratio Academy Limited was divided into two categories of online and physical.
He said the total cost implication under Category 1 (Online) was N3, 072, 000, 000 (three billion seventy-two million).
He said in Category II, the total cost implication was N740, 500, 000 (seven hundred and forty million, five hundred thousand naira).
He said total cost implication for Category 1 (Online) plus Category 2 (Physical) was N3, 813, 500, 000. 00 (three billion, eight hundred and twelve million, five hundred thousand naira).
Abubakar, however, alleged that the academy only trained 391 participants out of 502 participants under Category 2 (Physical)
He said the company also admitted receiving full and final payment for Category 2 in a document captioned: “Details of Total Payment Received” dated June 19, 2024, despite the evidence showing that the company only trained 391 out of 502.
Besides, he alleged that the academy received final and full payment for Category 1 (Online) from TETFund to the tune of over one billion naira without executing any work to justify the payment.
He added that evidence from beneficiary tertiary institutions revealed that the company did not carry out any online training activity in their institutions.
He said the MD/CEO of the company, Chukwuma, also made extra-judicial statements to the ICPC in the course of investigation explaining his own side of the story.
Abubakar also gave analysis of Fides Et Ratio Academy Limited account domiciled with Fidelity Bank and how monies were received in tranches.
He said on June 30, 2023, the sum of N550,380,780.23 was received from TETFund by the academy.
He said from the amount, Chukwuma made some transfers, including a deposit of N150, 000, 000.00 (one hundred and fifty million naira) on July 13, 2023, to Globe Motors Holdings Nig. Ltd for the purchase of one unit of Mercedes Benz GLS 600 Maybach for the academy.
Again, he alleged that on July 26, 2023, the sum of N1,503,743,850.00 was received from TETFund, and from the sum, Chukwuma made some transfers, including the sum of N150, 000, 000.00 sent to Globe Motors Holdings Nig. Ltd, for another deposit for the purchase of one unit of Mercedes Benz GLS 600 Maybach.
“For the over N300 million transferred to Globe Motors Holdings Nig. Ltd, Mr Paul Chukwuma claimed he had communication with his international partner, Prof. Dr. Klaus Stierstorfer on the need to buy a car for Fides Et Ratio Academy Limited.
“In this regard, he presented to the ICPC investigators two separate written communicates he had with Prof Stierstorfer,” he said.
The officer alleged that when the ICPC investigators requested Chukwuma to provide them with information on how to get across to Stierstorfer, the effort was unsuccessful till date.
According to him, the applicant (ICPC) is still on the trail of Prof. Dr. Klaus Stierstorfer, with a view to get him to clarify some of the claims of Mr. Paul Chukwuma.
