Crimes

EFCC chair: We recovered N134.3bn, $121m in 10 months

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it has recovered N134.3 billion, $121 million, among others from proceeds of crime between January and October 2022.

The EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, disclosed this at a media briefing in Abuja on Thursday.

Bawa said President Muhammadu Buhari had directed that the recovered funds be deployed to critical projects across the country.

“Moving forward to statistics of what we have been able to do particularly from January to date.

“In terms of monetary recovery for the year under review, from January 1 to October 31st, we have recovered N134.3 billion; we have equally recovered $121 million, pounds, euros, Japanese, Yen, among others.

“For the non-cash assets, there are some of the recoveries we have made – 52 automobiles, electronics, motorcycles, clothing, real estate.

“These are forfeited assets not cases that are under watch or investigation; and these are figures that are more or less direct recoveries from January to October 2022,” the EFCC boss said.

Bawa stated that in November, the commission recorded some achievements in terms of indirect recoveries.

He said the anti-graft agency made recoveries for Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

“In November 2022, we recovered $354 million for Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) in terms of royalty that one of the oil companies has not paid; our investigation led to that recovery.

“For the recoveries we are making for the Niger Delta Development Commission(NDDC) for instance, between now and probably next week, we are going to transfer to them about N30 billion (about $30 million).

“These are recoveries we have made refused to pay the three per cent statutory payment to NDDC.

“And we have recovered billions of naira from fraudulent contractual engagements that the NDDC has done over the years.

“You remember the forensic audit, the EFCC was given the mandate to carry out criminal investigation in that regard,” Bawa stated.

The EFCC boss said the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) mandated that all relevant agencies must open an account in naira and foreign currencies, adding that the Act further provided that all finally forfeited funds that belonged to the Federal Government should go into that account.

He stated that prior to POCA, such funds were paid into a designated Federal Government account.

“And we have to carry out and audit from our EFCC recovery account; and we paid into that account N120 billion and $29 million, about 6.6 million Euros as well as about I.1 million pounds.

“The president has sanctioned that those monies should be utilised for the provision of critical infrastructure in this country.

“So, the funds are going to be used for the completion of the Abuja-Kano expressway as well as the second Niger-Bridge and the Lagos-Ibadan expressway,” he disclosed.

The Star