Justice Walter Onnoghen, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, allegedly conducted what investigators have termed “suspicious transactions” in five undeclared accounts, according to a report.
The transactions were purportedly conducted through the CJN’s Standard Charter Bank accounts between 2012 and 2016, according to a report by The Nation.
The five undeclared accounts are part of the assets the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) said Justice Onnoghen failed to declare upon his elevation as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and constitute part of the six-count charge preferred against him at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
The newspaper reported that Justice Onnoghen failed to declare transactions, including a $800,000 investment subscription, and a $630,000 paid in tranches of $10,000, a payment investigators have purportedly described as “structured payments.”
According to the report as quoted by the newspaper: “Pattern of structured payments of $10,000.00 each in 2012. For example, a total of $630,000.00 was credited to the accounts using this pattern.
“Similarly structured payments of $10,000.00 amounting to $297,800.00, $50,000.00 and $36,000.00 were deposited in the account in 2013, 2015 and 2016 respectively.
“There was also a credit of $121,116.00 into the account from 2014 to 2016 from Life Friend Plc. The payments were in four instalments, of $30,279.00 each. These payments suggest the suspect has investments.
“A payment at $482,966.00 from Alicia Redemption Pro and shortly after, $800,000.00 was invested in SCB Investment subscription. We are in the process of verifying these transactions.
“Other suspicious transactions in the account are credit of $19,764.00 from Pur of Noble and seven (7) payments of $3,250.00, each amounting to $22,750.00 from Lloyds TSB.”
The report also stated that the embattled Chief Justice purportedly did a self-transfer of £40,268.40 into his pounds sterling account on May 31, 2016.
It also noted that self-deposits were made by the CJN to the tune of £49,760.00 from July 2015 to September 2016, but the balance as at September 30, 2016, was supposedly £108,348.00.
Onnoghen’s Naira accounts are also been scrutinised by investigators after it was found that he allegedly made a transfer of N41 million, as well as “six structured cash payments.”
“The following highlights some of the suspicious activities in the account: A transfer of N41,262.000.00 ($260,000) was made from the dollar account. The money was used to make payment of N41million to Ad hoc Committee on the Sale of Federal Government Houses, suggesting that he bought a property with proceeds of the transfer.
“The only other significant transactions in the accounts are six (6) structured cash payments of N500,000.00 each and one payment of N700,000.00 amounting to N3.7mlllion from November, 2013 to August, 2016,” the report stated.
