Ex-Port Harcourt Refinery MD arraigned for N1.32bn fraud

The former Managing Director of Port Harcourt Refining Company Ltd (PHRC), Ahmed Adamu Dikko, has been arraigned in Abuja on a 12-count money laundering charge. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alleges that Dikko, who led the refinery for about four years, along with a firm named Masterpiece Projects & Investment Limited, laundered approximately N1.32 billion. These funds are reportedly connected to contractors involved in the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).

The EFCC claims the money was laundered through property purchases, undisclosed bank holdings, concealment of funds, and unauthorized currency conversion, violating the Money Laundering Act of 2022. Both Dikko and the firm pleaded not guilty to the charges before Justice Inyang Ekwo.

Despite the prosecution's opposition, Justice Ekwo granted Dikko bail set at N150 million, requiring a surety with property valued at the same amount within the Federal Capital Territory. Dikko is to be held by the EFCC until his bail conditions are met. The trial is scheduled for October 12, 13, and 14. Dikko's appointment as MD in March 2020 aimed to drive the refinery's rehabilitation, and the charges are part of a broader EFCC investigation into alleged fund diversion for state-owned refineries.

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That you, Ahmed Adamu Dikko, did directly make cash payment of the dollar equivalent of the sum of N218,375,000.00 to one Hadeija Bashir for the purchase of Plot 558, Abubakar Umar Street, Katampe Extension, Abuja, without passing through a financial institution, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Sections 2(1)(a), 19(d) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and punishable under Section 19(2)(b) of the same Act.