*Verdict rubbishes Salami report submitted to Buhari since 2020
In a verdict that rubbishes the report of Justice Isa Salami -led panel and vindicated the former Acting Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, over his meritorious service to the country, a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has ordered the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) to pay N540.5million damages to Pastor Emmanuel Omale of the Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministry and his wife, Deborah, over false claim that he laundered about N573million for Magu.
The former EFCC boss is now a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG).
In his landmark judgment delivered on Tuesday, Justice Yusuf Halilu held that FCMB recklessly breached the fiduciary duty of care in its banker-customer relationship with its customers (the claimants) – Omale, his wife and their church.
The judgment was sequel to a suit marked FCT/HC/CV2541/2020 and filed by Omale, his wife and the church.
During the investigation of Magu by the Justice Salami-led Presidential Investigation Panel, it was claimed that an investigation by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) revealed that Magu paid N573million into Omale’s church’s account with which a property was allegedly bought in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
But in his verdict on Tuesday, Justice Halilu held that the evidence before his court showed that the bank admitted an error in its report to the NFIU, of entries in the Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministry’s account.
The judge further held that the bank claimed that the purported N573million was wrongly reflected as credit entry in Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministry’s account by its reporting system, which it recently upgraded.
Justice Halilu further held that FCMB admitted the error, which brought incalculable damage to the reputation of Omale, his wife and their church both within and outside Nigeria, thereby depleting their church’s membership.
According to Justice Halilu, the claimants have provided sufficient evidence to establish a case of negligence against FCMB.
The judge said, “The conduct of the Defendant in this case, clearly from the evidence that has been made out, is certainly careless and negligent; it is certainly not careless and negligent but unprofessional”.
Justice Halilu thereafter proceeded to award N200m as aggravated damages; N140,500,000 as specific damages and N200m as general damages.
TheIdeal recalls that the Salami panel had submitted its report on Magu to President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, November 20, 2022 but Buhari has refused to release the White Paper on the report till date – to enable the public to have first-hand information about the alleged corrupt activities of Magu in the charge and many other infractions levelled against him.
It is also important to note that lawyer to Magu, Mr Wahab Shittu, had raised the alarm over the strange procedures adopted by Salami panel during its secret sitting at the State House, Abuja, saying that his client was denied fair hearing throughout the sitting of the panel.
Although the details of the report are yet to be made public two years after, Magu has denied all the allegations levelled against him, saying that he is not corrupt just as he insisted that he served Nigeria without a blemish.
Submitting his report to Buhari, Salami claimed that the panel received 46 petitions and memoranda from individuals and organizations with complaints against Magu.
The former President of the Court of Appeal (PCA) added that Magu and 113 witnesses appeared and testified during the sitting of the panel.
Omale’s name was revealed through an investigative report on EFCC’s activities by NFIU and mentioned in the final report of the Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets (PCARA).
The report added that the unknown Pastor is alleged to have bought a landed property on behalf of Magu worth N573 million in Dubai, United Arab Emirate.
The report said, “Another individual who is helping in laundering funds for the Acting Chairman and who has been referred to in several petitions is one Pastor Emmanuel Omale of the Hand of God Prophetic Ministry.
“He’s reported to have travelled to Dubai with Mr Magu, and his name was used in purchasing a property in Dubai for Mr Magu.
“As an unknown pastor, the NFIU’s report showed the huge movement of funds ranging from N573,228,040.41.”
But the former Managing Director of FCMB, Adam Nuru, was said to have informed the Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets (PCARA) that the bank made an error of posting N573 million into the church’s account.
In a letter to Omale, the FCMB expressed regrets and published a public apology in three national newspapers as demanded by Omale’s lawyer.
Speaking through his lawyer, Mr Goddy Uche (SAN), Omale told the court that the false alarm and summons caused his name to be dragged in the mud in the media which caused him untold hardship, trauma and great financial losses.
He said although the bank owned up in its letter published in three national newspapers, the damage had already been done.
In the defamation suit against the FCMB, the Omales urged the court to take a judicial notice of the fact that, “Sometime in the year 2016, the Defendant negligently and falsely in its computer system generated weekly automated report to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) alerted the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) of a “suspicious” credit inflow of N573, 228, 040. 41 (Five Hundred and Seventy-Three Million Naira, Two Hundred and Twenty-Eight Thousand, Forty Naira and 41 kobo) into the 1st Claimant’s Corporate Current Account No: 1486743019 in line with the Money 125 Act and the tension Act; the Economic and Financial Crimes Act and the Terrorism Prevention Act, which mandates the Defendant to report any suspicious financial transaction of its customers,” part of the court documents revealed to newsmen.
“Pursuant to the said false automated report by the Defendant to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), concerning the 1st Claimant, the Claimants were placed under criminal/financial investigation by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and other security agencies, since the year 2016, and suffered untold hardships by investigation by the Presidential Investigation Committee which sat at the Presidential Villa, Abuja and later the good name of the 2 Claimant was publicly dragged to the mud in the media in consequence of the said false report of the Defendant.
“The Claimants offered the Defendant an opportunity to amicably settle this matter out of court, as the Defendant had publicly admitted its error in generating a false weekly automated report to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) which offer the Defendant out of impunity ignored, hence this suit.
“The kernel of the Claimants’ suit is anchored firmly on the negligence of the Defendant in generating a false weekly automated report to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), which false report has occasioned untold hardships, trauma and great financial losses on the Claimants.
“We submit most respectfully that the Defendant by its various admissions and apologies have admitted their error or negligence in the automated report (Exhibit DH) it sent to the (Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit) NFIU about the Claimant’s account.
We refer your Lordship to the Defendant’s Letter dated September 11, 2020 (Exhibit DA) and the 3 (three) newspaper publications of Guardian, Dally Trust and Business Day Newspapers of 13 September 2020 admitted in evidence as Exhibits “DB”, “DC” and “DD” respectively.
In these documentary pieces of evidence, the Defendant owned up to its error/mistake/negligence, which resultantly occasioned damages against the Claimants. The DW2 also confirmed this fact under cross-examination thus:
“In furtherance of the above pleading, we submit that the nature of the negligence of the Defendant is in the genre of res ipsa loquitor, the matter speaks for itself. Even from the facts of the case it is clear that the negligence arose from the act of the Defendant.
In MANAGEMENT ENTERPRISES LTD vs. OTUSANYA (1987) 2 NWLR (PT.55) 179 @ 191, Oputa, JSC stated the essence of the maxim of res ipsa loquitor to be that an event, which in the ordinary course of things was more likely than not to be caused by negligence was by itself evidence of negligence depending of course on the absence of explanation.”
Premium Times also reports that during the investigation of Magu by a Presidential Investigation Committee on the EFCC Federal Government Recovered Assets and Finances from May 2015 to May 2020, it was alleged that an investigation by NFIU revealed that Magu, who is now retired from the police, paid N573 million into Omale’s church’s account.
It further alleged that the funds were used to purchase property for Magu in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
About the time the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported the report of the panel, Magu was facing a barrage of similar allegations before the Salami panel.
It is instructive to note that the Salami-led panel, which conducted its months-long hearing in secrecy, is believed to have been engineered by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), to get Magu out of office, following crisis of confidence between the duo and the irreconcilable differences they shared on diverse issues.
Magu, who was suspended as Acting Chairman of the EFCC in the wake of the probe by Salami’s panel, was never recalled or held accountable for any infraction after the panel submitted its report to Buhari.
The other panel, titled, ‘Final Report of the Presidential Investigation Committee on the EFCC Federal Government Recovered Assets and Finances from May 2015 to May 2020,’ was said to be headed by Abdullahi Ibrahim, a former Attorney General and Minister of Justice.
Incidentally, the report stated that Magu, through a pastor named Omale, had been laundering public funds to foreign countries.
“As an unknown pastor, the NFIU’s report showed the huge movement of funds ranging from N573, 228,040.41,” the report claimed.
The report, published by NAN, delved into other allegations against Magu including- failing to cooperate with foreign authorities over probe on former Minister of Petroleum, Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke, and circulation of disproportionate figures on recovered loot.
The report further accused Magu of allegedly failing to properly account for a recovered N551billion by the EFCC while he was its acting chairman.
The report featured prominently in the course of the defamation hearing filed by the Omales to clear their names.
