Activists petition EFCC over Sunburn Yacht

Members of a group, Zero Corruption
Coalition, South-West, on Tuesday trooped
to the office of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission in Lagos to protest
“moribund” Sunburn Yacht Hotel. The group called on the EFCC and the
Lagos State Government to investigate
those behind the purchase of the yacht
which allegedly cost taxpayers and
Diamond Bank Plc shareholders and
depositors a whooping N8bn. As at 9.30am, the protesters had already
assembled at the EFCC office on Awolowo
Road, Ikoyi, but were initially prevented by
some overzealous men of the State
Security Service from submitting their petition. They were later allowed to see an EFCC official who was allegedly directed by Abuja to give the protesters
audience. After submitting the petition, the protesters marched through Awolowo Road, singing solidarity songs and
waving placards. The placards bore inscriptions such as ‘Governor Babatunde Fashola must recover our money,’ ‘Sunburn
burns the people’s money,’ ‘Who owns Loneseed Limited?’, ‘Security and Exchange Commission must
investigate Diamond Bank,’ ‘Let EFCC do its work,’ among others. Addressing journalists during the peaceful protest, Secretary, Zero Corruption Coalition, Mr. Mark Adebayo,
called on the commission to thoroughly investigate the conspirators in the alleged corruption committed
through the Yacht. “All the people involved in the corruption should be brought to book. We cannot allow N8bn taxpayers’ money
go down the drain and the perpetrators are walking freely in the society,” Adebayo said. In the petition, a copy of which was made available to PUNCH Metro, the group urged the EFCC to investigate Loneseed Limited, a company which allegedly secured N5bn loan from Diamond Bank to purchase the yacht. The petition states, “We submit that the above actions contravened all extant laws of the Banking Act, the
money laundering Act, the Companies and Allied Act, Anti-Corruption Act, all of which constitute EFCC
crimes, including violation of Due Process and Procurement Act. “Except otherwise discovered, we are yet to have evidence that any collateral was engaged in the fraudulent
deal. We request EFCC to help find out what collateral was engaged before such a huge loan was advanced.”