Investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes, into the tenure of the former minister for Humanitarian Affairs Sadiya Umar-Farouk is yielding fruit with the anti-graft agency recovering over N30bn from the N37,170, 855,753.44 allegedly laundered under the former minister.
Recall that in December 2023, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission uncovered a total sum of N37,170,855,753.44 allegedly laundered in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs under the former minister.
The probe conducted by the EFCC revealed that the money was transferred from the Federal Government’s coffers and sent to 38 different bank accounts domiciled in five commercial banks belonging to or connected with a contractor, James Okwete.
Following receipt of the funds, Okwete allegedly transferred N6,746,034,000.00 to Bureau De Change Operators, withdrew N540,000,000.00 in cash, purchased luxury cars with N288,348,600.00, and bought luxury houses in Abuja and Enugu State with N2,195,115,000.00.
Fifty-three companies were allegedly traced to Okwete, who was also said to have used 47 of the companies to lift Federal Government contracts amounting to N27,423,824,339.86. He is also linked with 143 bank accounts in 12 commercial banks in which 134 accounts are corporate accounts linked to different companies.
Now in January 2024, the anti-graft agency has recovered N30bn following the placement of a lien on the bank accounts of Umar-Farouq and Okwete, who are still being grilled by the anti-graft agency’s investigators.
The former minister made her first appearance at Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Abuja Headquarters earlier in January to honour the invitation by the anti-graft agency.
The former minister had in response to media reports stressed her willingness to honour the Commission’s invitation, saying, “I remain proud to have served my country as a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria with every sense of responsibility and will defend my actions, stewardship and programmes during my tenure whenever I am called upon to do so”.
But Nigerians many of who live bellow the poverty line may disagree with Umar-Farouk as Punch reports that N30 billion has so far been recovered from mismanaged funds under her tenure.
The paper quoted an EFCC source as saying, “The commission has now recovered over N30bn from the laundered N37.1bn that was linked to former minister Sadiya Umar-Farouq. We were able to recover the money after we placed liens on the bank accounts of the former minister and the contractor, Mr Okwete, who was linked to the fraud under probe. Both the minister and the contractor are still being grilled by our investigators daily.”
“We have uncovered another N17bn money laundering from the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, and for the alleged fraud linked to the suspended minister, Betta Edu, we have so far recovered over N500m. Edu is still answering questions about the fraud”, the paper quotes another highly placed source as saying.
“The NSIPA coordinator, Halima Shehu, is still being grilled over the N44bn fraud linked to her at the NSIPA; our investigators aren’t leaving any stone unturned”, the source was quoted as saying.
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