The Federal High Court in Lagos has convicted Femi Thomas, former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), for breaching the N5 million cash transaction limit stipulated by law for individuals.
Presiding over the case, Justice Ayokunle Faji on Thursday delivered judgment on charges involving $2,198,900 filed against Thomas by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The EFCC had arraigned Thomas and Kabiru Sidi, a bureau de change (BDC) operator, on a seven-count charge relating to money laundering to the tune of $2,198,900.
Sidi was charged solely on count six, which involved making false statements to an EFCC official.
“That you, Dr. Martins Oluwafemi Thomas (a.k.a Dr. Ike), the former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, on or about the 3rd of July, 2015 at Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, procured Mrs. Femi Thomas to disguise the unlawful origin of the sum of $2,198,900 (Two million, One Hundred and Ninety-eight Thousand, Nine Hundred United States Dollars) and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18 and punishable under Section 15(2)(a) and (3) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended by Act No. 1 of 2012),” part of the charge sheet reads.
Both defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In a statement issued by the EFCC, prosecution counsel Ekele Iheanacho urged the court to convict the defendants, asserting that the case was clearly one of money laundering.
“The defendant entered his defence because the law required him to show how he acquired the funds legitimately,” Iheanacho said.
“Part of his evidence was that he made the funds heavily from his farming businesses. The evidence of his farming was contained in his financial statement.
“This is a case of money laundering, where the issue of concealment of transaction is paramount and that is why the law requires such transactions to go through financial institutions so that there will be a trial.
“Any application that suggests otherwise will defeat the basis of section 1 of the Money Laundering Act.”
Justice Faji found Thomas “guilty of transacting beyond the threshold without going through a financial institution” and imposed a fine of N10,000,000.
However, the judge discharged Thomas on counts one, two, three, four, and seven.
In April 2015, then-President Goodluck Jonathan relieved Thomas of his role as NHIS Executive Secretary.
Section 1 of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011, provides that: “No person or body corporate shall, except in a transaction through a financial institution, make or accept cash payment of a sum exceeding “(a) N5,000,000.00 or its equivalent, in the case of an individual; or “(b) N10,000,000.00 or its equivalent, in the case of a body corporate.”
