EFCC vs Dimeji Bankole Latest: EFCC Probes Alani Bankole (Dimeji's Father)
Alani Bankole, owner of West African Aluminium Products Plc (WAAP) and father of the embattled former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, may lose ownership of a Nitel Skyscraper (NECOM House) which his company bought in 2008, while his son in office.
The sale of the NECOM House to WAAP was challenged in a petition written on behalf of the board of Nitel by a former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Ambassador Stephen Willoughby.
The property was sold alongside others by Messrs Olusola Adekanola and Co, Liquidator of NITEL/M-Tel Staff Pension Fund, who claimed the sale followed due process and was sanctioned by the minister for works at the time.
However, Willoughby insisted that former president Olusegun Obasanjo had placed an embargo on the sale of the NECOM House, a claim the liquidator said the company was not aware of. The Bureau of Public Enterprise also set up a committee which, in its findings on the sale to WAAP Plc, recommended that the Federal Government revoke the sale.
“Government may revoke the sale of NECOM House to West African Aluminium Products Plc by the Liquidator of NITEL/MTel Staff Pension Fund (in liquidation) on the grounds of established fraud and tainted process and ask the liquidator to refund the consideration with interest to the buyers,” the report read.
The committee confirmed that the original list of NITEL/M-Tel non-core assets, which formed the basis of all the assets transferred to the Trustees of NITEL Pension Fund Scheme for purposes of liquidation, was generated by the management of NITEL/M-Tel and handed over to the BPE.
The presidency has ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Attorney General of the Federation, Bello Adoke, to probe the sale.
With this case, the Bankole family seems to be embroiled in more controversies, as the son of the WAAP owner, the former Speaker, is facing a 16-count charge of contract inflation and awards without due process levelled against him by the EFCC.
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