Aisha Rimi was indicted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the past for allegedly diverting N3 billion in state government monies from Lagos to other entities.
News About Nigeria confirms that President Bola Tinubu recently appointed Rimi as CEO of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC).
Lawyer for the EFCC, Olamide Sadiq, revealed in 2018 that the anti-graft agency was made aware of the questionable transfers after the National Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) linked suspicious “heavy inflows over N3 billion from the Lagos state government Number Plate Production Authority” to the accounts of Rimi’s signing parties, Rimi and Partners and Ekosina Investment Limited.
The law company was solely owned by her.
According to investigations by Sadiq in 2018, Aisha Rimi is the primary partner in Rimi and Partners and also has control over Ekosina Investment Limited, which has been shown to have received significant transfers from the Number Plate Production Authority of the Lagos state government.
Folorunsho Coker, Rimi’s husband, was the managing director of the Number Plate Authority at the time, and it was thought that he approved the diversion of government cash. As a result, he was the main suspect in the case, and Rimi could have been involved in the fraud as well.
In the lawsuit that the EFCC filed, her two businesses were identified as the second and third respondents.
Mohammed Idris, a judge of the Federal High Court’s Lagos Division, ordered the immediate freezing of ten Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) accounts that belonged to Rimi and her shell firms in 2018 as a result of the investigation.
“Folorunsho Coker, the managing director of the Lagos state agency, used the second and third respondents to divert funds from the Lagos state government Number Plate Production Authority,” Sadiq said based on the commission’s early investigations.
It’s unclear if the EFCC told Tinubu about the serious fraud allegations against Rimi before her appointment to the NIPC and if the anti-graft organisation wrapped up its investigation in 2018.
Requests for clarification about whether or not they communicated their findings with Tinubu were not immediately answered by EFCC spokesman Wilson Uwajuren when contacted by Peoples Gazette.
President Tinubu didn’t respond to questions when asked if he knew about the fraud charges against Rimi before appointing her as CEO of NIPC.
But, this is not the first time that people tainted by corruption have gained prominent positions in Tinubu’s administration. Femi Gbajabiamila, whose legal licence was revoked due to his unethical behaviour and corruption, is currently the president’s chief of staff.
