$35m NCDMB Project: EFCC Re-arraigns Akindele Akintoye, Witness Says $6.9m Paid in Cash
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday, 1 December 2025, re-arraigned Akindele Akintoye before Justice Ekerete Akpan of the Federal High Court in Abuja on an amended six-count charge related to alleged dishonesty and conversion of $35 million under the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) Project. Also facing trial are Platforms Capital Investment Partners Limited and Duport Midstream Company Limited. Prosecution counsel, E.E. Iheanacho, SAN, informed the court that the amended charge, dated 27 November 2025, had been filed and requested that it be read to the defendants to take their plea. Defence counsel for all three defendants did not object. One of the counts reads: “That you, Akindele Akintoye, and Platform Capital Investment Partners Limited, between December 2020 and February 2021 in Lagos within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, indirectly retained the sum of $16,006,000 being part of the funds dishonestly converted from the money paid by the NCDMB Capacity Development Intervention Company Limited to Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited as investment when you knew that the said sum constituted proceeds of unlawful activity and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 15(2)(d) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2011, as amended, and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act.” Another count alleges that Akintoye and Platform Capital Investment Partners Limited “indirectly used the aggregate sum of $9,048,725, being part of the funds dishonestly converted from the money paid by the NCDMB Capacity Development Intervention Company Ltd to Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited as investment when you knew that the said sum constituted proceeds of unlawful activity.” All defendants pleaded “not guilty.” The prosecution called its third witness, Isah Yusuf, who told the court he was in the business of sourcing dollars for clients and earning commission. He explained his role in the alleged transactions: “Sometimes in 2021, PW2, a Zenith Bank staff, Mr. Adeshina, called me that he had a customer who had dollars in his account and wanted to swap with physical cash. So, I went to meet Mrs. Bunmi, the owner of Oxygen Oil and Gas and Kensley Logistics Ltd, and I met another person, Mr. Yunusa, who had four corporate accounts: Rochdale Logistics Ltd, Honda Manufacturing, Porkfirst Ltd, and Global Factual. They transferred the US dollars to these companies’ accounts and were paid in cash,” he said. Yusuf added: “I got the dollars in cash from Oxygen Oil and Gas and Kensley Logistics Limited and the other four accounts. I used to deliver these cash payments to the office of the defendant on several occasions which I have stated in my statement in the EFCC.” He told the court the total amount paid in cash to Akintoye was “Six million, Nine Hundred Dollars in cash,” and insisted, “I gave it to his staff. The first defendant never came down to meet us.” The witness’s statements were tendered in court and marked as exhibits L1, L2, and L3. Justice Akpan adjourned the trial to 2 December 2025 for continuation.
| 2025-12-02 19:28:02