Abubakar Samaila Isa Funtua loses bid to stop EFCC probe over ‘N28bn fraud’

Abubakar Samaila Isa Funtua, son of billionaire Alhaji Isa Funtua, has lost bid to restrain the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate him for alleged bank fraud.

The EFCC is investigating Abubakar Samaila Isa Funtua and one of his ally, Asega Aliga, who is now at large, for allegedly embezzling N28 billion from Keystone Bank Limited.

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.

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.

However, in a bid to evade prosecution, the businessman filed a suit to retrain the EFCC from investigating him.

However, a Federal High Court in Abuja, led by Justice Emeka Nwite, on Monday, February 24, 2025, dismissed the suit filed by Funtua, for lacking merit and substance. The businessman had sought a court order to compel the AGF to stop the EFCC’s investigation into his business transactions, claiming that the anti-graft agency was biased and acting on the instructions of his business competitors. He argued that EFCC failed to disclose the nature of the allegations against him or present any petition.

Funtua requested the court to issue a mandamus order to direct the AGF to have another security agency take over the investigation.

However, Justice Nwite ruled that the AGF’s powers, as outlined in Section 174(3) of the 1999 Constitution, did not allow for the nomination of an agency to conduct investigations into economic crimes.

Justice Nwite emphasized that under Section 43 of the EFCC Act of 2004, the EFCC is fully empowered to initiate its own investigations into alleged economic crimes without needing guidance from any other ministry or government agency. As a result, the judge found the businessman’s suit to be without merit and dismissed it accordingly.