BREAKING: Court orders arrest of ex-NIA DG, Ayodele Oke and wife “wherever they might be anywhere in the world”

Justice C.J Aneke of the Federal High court in Lagos has ordered the arrest of former Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ayodele Oke, and his wife, Folashade, anywhere they are sighted in the world.

EFCC in January this year filed four charges of alleged fraud against Oke, and his wife, Folashade Oke.

Recall that in 2017, $43 million was found stashed in an apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos state. Investigations showed that the apartment belonged to the NIA boss and his wife.

After an investigation by a panel led by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Oke was dismissed from office in 2018. In January, the EFCC filed four charges against him.

In the charge sheet marked FHC/L/499/19, the EFCC alleged that the Okes “indirectly concealed the sum of $43,449, 947, property of the Federal Government of Nigeria in Flat 7B, No. 16, Osborne Road, Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, which sum you reasonably ought to have known formed parts of proceeds of an unlawful act, to wit: criminal breach of trust.”

The Okes were alleged to have committed the crime on April 12th 2017, contrary to Section 15(2)(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Amendment Act 2012.

In the second count, they were alleged to have between August 27, 2015, and September 2015 “indirectly used $1,658,000,” belonging to the Federal Government, contrary to the law.

In the third and fourth counts, the defendants were alleged to “directly retained the sum of $160,777,136.85,” belong to the Federal Government.

The couple were meant to be arraigned in court yesterday but the operatives of the anti-graft agency told the court that they are nowhere to be found. There are speculations that Mr Oke and his wife might have fled the country.

This morning, Justice Aneke ordered the police to effect their arrest wherever they might be sighted in the world.