Kano-born international businessman, Rabiu Auwalu Tijjani, has threatened a lawsuit against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for reputational damage by declaring him wanted for money laundering, a charge he described as false.
But EFCC spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, said Auwalu was declared wanted as all measures to get across to him had failed.
Auwalu, in a statement on Sunday, said he had a legitimate business transaction with one Ifeanyi Ezeokolu to the tune of $77 million within a year.
The anti-graft agency had on Friday declared Tijjani, a 43-year-old native of Dala local government area in Kano state, wanted over his alleged involvement in obtaining money by false pretence and money laundering to the tune of $1.9 million.
Auwalu claimed to have been cheated in the transaction between January and December 2023, said, “I am a businessman resident in the United Arab Emirates, and when Ifeanyi contacted me for a transaction, he would forward Naira to me while I sent back the dollar equivalent.
The whole transaction was over $77 million in volume, which was conducted with Ifeanyi’s 11 companies. In the course of the transactions, we realised that Ifeanyi was overpaid after checking our records. We subsequently got across to him and he started foot-dragging.’’
According to Auwalu, he thereafter notified the Department of State Services DSS, who, after interrogation of the parties, advised the engagement of an independent auditor to check the accounts used in the transactions.
‘’After the engagement with the DSS, Ifeanyi was not forthcoming, and I had to engage the services of an auditor.’’
He noted that to his surprise, instead of account reconciliation by both parties, Ifeanyi dragged the DSS to court over rights violations.
‘’Right now, the matter is before a high court and was later informed that the matter was with the EFCC, in which I sent a representation to the commission,” he said.
The auditor reconciling the accounts of the two parties, Mr. Olumide Ajayi, said that upon reviewing the accounts, they discovered that Ifeanyi’s companies had been overpaid by over $2 million.
‘’We requested that both parties provide us with their account records, which they did. We realised that Ifeanyi had made available records of only nine companies out of the eleven in the transactions.
“Even after several back and forth, as I speak with you, the account records of GRE International Company for trading and Supplies and Seagate Maritime Limited are yet to be provided by Ifeanyi. The transactions on these two accounts are more than $50m. I planned to be with the EFCC in Abuja on Monday also”, Ajayi explained.
Ifeanyi Ezeokolu, when contacted, declined to comment, noting that the matter was before the EFCC.