Nov. 15, 2013
Shocking details emerged Friday of how Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido, allegedly connived with two of his sons, Aminu and Mustapha Lamido, to allegedly defraud the state government of over N10billion.
Aminu and Mustapha, who were arrested on Thursday in Kano by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, were flown to Abuja on Friday morning, for further interrogation.
But PREMIUM TIMES has obtained disturbing details of how huge sums of money belonging to Jigawa state were moved in and out of 34 bank accounts of nine companies linked to the governor’s family members.
The details, seen by PREMIUM TIMES Friday show that the bulk of the lodgments, running into billions on naira, were funds received from the Jigawa State government.
Between June 2010 and August 2013, for instance, over N1.5billion was paid into an account in Skye Bank belonging to Bamaina Aluminium Limited, a company which has Governor Lamido and his two sons as directors.
During the period, Mustapha Lamido, who is a signatory, made multiple lodgments into the account from the Jigawa State government account.
Similarly, Bamaina Holdings Limited, whose account with Unity Bank has Governor Lamido as sole signatory, recorded total cash lodgments of over N1.19billion between February 2007 and July 2013, out of which about N1billion was, at various times during the period, paid out to other sister companies.
Equally, Bamaina Company Nigeria Limited, which has the governor, his two sons and one other person as directors, has another bank account with Mustapha as sole signatory. Between January 2010 and July 2013, over N500million withdrawals were made from the account, mostly by Mustapha.
Although registration documents did not link Rawda Integrated Services Limited to any known member of the Lamido family, the company’s account details with Access Bank showed that it was operated by Mustapha and one other person.
Between December 2008 and April 2009, over N32million was paid by the Jigawa State government into the account, which made several payments totaling over N50million to another company, Speeds International Limited, which has the governor and his two sons as directors.
Another account belonging to Rawda Integrated Services Limited in First City Monument Bank, FCMB, has a different signatory, with records of huge cash lodgments of over N2.6billion and several staggering withdrawals within two years.
Rawda also has another account in Zenith Bank, with Mustapha as signatory, with over N1.1billion paid in by different individuals and organizations between January 2007 and May 2013.
For Speeds International Limited, its account with Access Bank, with Mustapha as its sole signatory, received total deposits of over N2.2billion between January 2007 and February 2010. This is apart from a dollar account it also maintains, which has total lodgments of over $346,700.
Saby Integrated Nigeria Limited is the another company owned by the Lamidos, with Aminu Lamido as the sole signatory to its account with Fidelity Bank. Investigators said a total of over N600million was lodged into the account from several Jigawa State government establishments between July 2010 and November 2012.
Some of the payments made into the account at different times included over N84million, over N300million, over N60million, over N48million and over N93million, while between January 2010 and August 2013 over N730million were paid into the account, 95 per cent of which were by different Jigawa State government institutions.
Investigations into the activities of the other companies are ongoing, although PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the cumulative turnover of the family business could be as high as over N10billion.
Efforts to reach the Lamidos were unsuccessful. Telephone calls and text messages from our reporter to Umar Kyari, Governor Lamido’s spokesperson were unanswered.
