Abubakar Isa Funtua, son of billionaire Alhaji Isa Funtua, may soon be arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over alleged N28 billion fraud.
The EFCC is currently investigating Abubakar and one of his ally, Asega Aliga, who is now at large, for allegedly embezzling N28 billion from Keystone Bank Limited.
The anti-graft agency had arrested and granted bail to Abubakar Isa Funtua in June this year.
Before his arrest and detention by the EFCC, Abubakar Isa Funtua who was said to have initially fled to Spain has a substantial wealth, estimated at $300 million in cash and properties, which is now under scrutiny. Aliga, on the other hand, is believed to be hiding in Uganda.
The duo purportedly used 13 phoney business concerns to obtain agricultural loans from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under Godwin Emefiele; they refused to repay the billion before going into hiding.
The Witness reliably gathered that Abubakar will be arraigned in court in February 2025.
According to sources, Abubakar and Aliga had used proxies to set up a company called Seltrix Nigeria Limited, where most of the N28 billion collected from the CBN as Agric loans were warehoused. Only about N4 billion is now left in the Seltrix account. The impact of their actions is significant, as Keystone Bank can no longer recover its money because the companies that used to obtain those loans only exist on paper.
Keystone Bank Limited, is a commercial bank in Nigeria. The bank is one of the commercial banks licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the national banking regulator.
On Friday 5 August 2011, Keystone Bank Limited was issued a commercial banking license by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). On the same day, CBN revoked the banking license of Bank PHB. Keystone Bank assumed the assets and some liabilities of the now defunct Bank PHB.[6]
On 22 March 2017, Asset Management Company of Nigeria announced that Keystone bank had been sold to investors for 25 billion naira ($81.5 million). It was sold to Sigma Golf-Riverbank consortium.
