The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, instituted a six-count money laundering charge against former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Commission, NNPC, Andrew Yakubu.

The  charge was contained in court papers filed on  March 9 at the Federal High Court Abuja.

According to the charge sheet,  which was sighted by journalists,  the ex-NNPC boss was accused of failure to fully disclose in his Assests Declaration form, the sums of 9,772 800 dollars and 74,000 pounds, a crime contrary to Section 27 (3)(a) of the EFCC act 2004.

Yakubu was also accused of receiving a cash payment of the said sums without going through a financial institution thereby committing an offence under the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011.

The EFCC posits that Yakubu  fully knew that the said amounts of money were part of proceeds of unlawful activity.

This, according to the charge sheet, run counter to Section 7 (4) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act 2006.

Recall that the EFCC, acting on intelligence, had in February discovered the sum of $9.8m and 74,000 pounds kept in a fire-proof drawer in a house located at Tasha, a suburb of  Kaduna, which the anti-graft agency alleged belonged to Yakubu.

A court in Kano later ordered the forfeiture of the money to the federal government following a motion filed by the EFCC.

However, the former NNPC boss has filed a case in another court in Kano, asking that the forfeiture order be lifted.

He claimed that the money was proceeds of various gifts given to him while he was working with the NNPC.