N32.8bn Police pension fraud: Appeal Court strikes out suspect’s application to defreeze  accounts, assets

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The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has dismissed an application filed by Esai Dangabar, one of the six suspects who allegedly defrauded the Police Pension Office to the tune of N32.8 billion. Dangabar filed the application, challenging the decision of Justice Lawal H. Gumi of the FCT High Court which ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to attach and take possession of his assets and to freeze his bank accounts.

The judge had earlier pronounced that, “all the bank accounts currently being operated and maintained by Inuwa Wada at Keystone and Zenith Bank all totalling 11 in number are hereby temporarily frozen until the determination of the charge Number FCT/Cr/64/2012. 


Similarly, all the bank accounts presently being operated and maintained by Esai Dangabar, Atiku A. Kigo and Veronica Onyegbula in the following banks: EcoBank, FCMB, Access Bank, Sky Bank, Fortis Micro Finance Bank, Aso Savings, GTB, Main Street Bank and Wema Bank are herby temporarily frozen pending the hearing and determination of all the said criminal charge No.  FCT/64/2012 presently pending before this court”, the Judge ruled. But Dangabar, in an appeal dated May 16, 2012, raised three issues and prayed the court among others to set aside the decision of the FCT High Court. 


The issues he canvassed were: that the forfeiture order breached his right to fair hearing as enshrined in Section 36 (1) of the 1999 Constitution and that the order of attachment and forfeiture made on May 3, 2012 was inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution as it takes away his property right and presumption of innocence. 

He added that the freezing order of his account did not comply with Section 34 of the EFCC Act.

In a unanimous decision read by Justice Kolawole Bada, the Appeal Court resolved the three issues raised by Dangabar in favour of the EFCC. Two other justices who held the same view were Justices Bukar Chua and Husseini Mukhtar. The court ruled that the interim forfeiture order pending the hearing of the criminal charge preferred against him is provided for under the EFCC Act. “The court, having been given that power, the exercise of it has not taken away the accused right to fair hearing”, the three justices reasoned.


The court further ruled that the provisions of Section 28 and 29 of the EFCC Act is validated by Section 44 (2) of the 1999 Constitution and is therefore constitutional. Additionally, the court ruled that the presumption of innocence cannot be interpreted to allow a suspect to retain the proceed of the alleged crime made against him.  Accordingly, the court ruled that Section 34 of the EFCC Act was substantially complied with by the lower court.


The six suspects who were arraigned on March 29, 2012, on a 16 criminal charges bordering on conspiracy and criminal breach of trust before Justice Mohammed Talba of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Gudu, Abuja, were Esai Dangabar, Atiku Abubakar Kigo, Ahmed Inuwa Wada, John Yakubu Yusufu, Mrs. Veronica Ulonma Onyegbula and Sani Habila Zira. Kigo was the director of the Police Pension Office, before he was made permanent secretary.