EFCC Remits N136bn, Recovers N30bn From Suspended Accountant General
Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, says the EFCC has recovered N136,651,505,114 and paid it into the Federal Government account opened to manage proceeds of crime since May 2022.
The breakdown of the recoveries from January to December 2022 in naira and foreign currencies includes: N134,33,759,574.25, $121,769,076.30, £21,020.00, €156,925.00, ¥21,350.00, CFA300,000.00, among others.
Bawa, during the Ministerial Briefing organised by the Presidential Communication Team at the Presidential Villa, said the recovered funds would be deployed into ongoing infrastructure projects such as the Abuja-Kano Road, the Second Niger Bridge, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, among others, as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“I want to state here that the POCA, which is the Proceeds of Crime Act 2022, mandates that all relevant agencies must open what is called the Confiscated Assets and Properties Account in naira and foreign currencies and that all finally forfeited funds that belong to the federal government should now go into that account. And before, we had to pay the money into a designated account.
“But with POCA, this is where we now keep the different government assets recovered. And we have carried out an audit. From our EFCC recovery account, we paid N120bn and $29m, about 6.6m euros, and about 1.1m pounds into that.”
Bawa said in November, the EFCC recovered another N201bn from oil firms defaulting on royalties to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and the 3 percent statutory payment to the Niger Delta Development Commission.
“We recovered $354m for the NUPRC in terms of royalties that one of the oil companies has not paid. Our investigations led to that recovery.
“For the recoveries that we’re making for NDDC, for instance, between now and probably next week, we’ll transfer to them about N30bn and about $30m.
He also said over N30bn was recovered from the suspended Accountant-General of the Federation, Idris Ahmed, currently being prosecuted over alleged N109bn fraud.
Bawa said the EFCC had not backed down on the N7.1bn fraud case against a former governor of Abia State and Chief Whip of the Senate, Orji Kalu.
He said Kalu had neither been discharged nor acquitted, adding that the EFCC was still pursuing the matter against him.
The EFCC chairman said over 3,615 convictions were recorded within the period.
He said the nationwide auction of forfeited automobiles would be followed by the disposal of over 150 houses to interested buyers.
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