The Federal Government account established to collect and handle the profits of crime has received at least N136 billion, according to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which reported this on Thursday.
This information was provided to State House Correspondents by EFCC Chairman Abdulrasheed Bawa at the 62nd State House Ministerial Briefing, which was held at the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja and hosted by the Presidential Communication Team.
The split of the funds, according to Bawa, is N120bn, $29m, 6.6 million euros, and almost 1.1 million pounds.
The Naira are equivalent to N136,651,505,114 in naira.
The Abuja-Kano road, Second Niger Bridge, and Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, among other ongoing infrastructure projects, will receive funding from these recovered assets, according to him.
The Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act, 2022 was enacted by Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retired) on May 12, 2022.
The Act aims to, among other things, provide a strong criminal confiscation procedure, a non-conviction-based procedure for the recovery of proceeds of crime, an effective legal and institutional framework for the management of the proceeds of crime, and collaboration among the relevant organizations in locating properties that are plausibly suspected to be the proceeds of illegal activity.
Bawa stated, “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 ultimately forfeited funds that belong to the Federal Government should now go into that account. I want to disclose the amount of funds and value of properties recovered so far. Previously, we were required to deposit the funds into a certain account.
But with POCA, here is where we now store the various recovered government assets. And we’ve conducted an audit. We transferred N120bn and $29m, or 6.6m euros, and roughly 1.1m pounds into that account from our EFCC recovery account.
And the President has approved using all of those funds to build the nation’s essential infrastructure. Therefore, among other things that the federal government receives, the money will be used to finish the Abuja-Kano expressway, the second Niger bridge, and the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
He disclosed that the anti-graft agency had recovered an additional N201 billion in November 2022 from oil companies that had failed to pay royalties due to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and the required 3% payment to the Niger Delta Development Commission.
The breakdown is $354 million, N30 billion, and $30 million.
“The following are some of the indirect recoveries we have made in November 2022. For the NUPRC, we were able to recover $354 million in unpaid royalties from one of the oil corporations. That recovery was made as a result of our inquiries.
“For the recoveries we’re making for NDDC, for example, we’ll transmit to them roughly $30 million and about N30 billion between now and possibly next week.
These are recoveries from oil corporations who have declined to make the required 3% payment to NDDC, according to Bawa.
The EFCC chief, despite extensive questioning from media, remained coy about the identification of the company.
“The $354 million was only collected from one firm. I can’t remember the time frame, but our Lagos leadership conducted an inquiry, and we have proof of payments the aforementioned company paid.
We’ll leave it there since some of these topics are delicate.
In response to claims that the EFCC might be a tool in the hands of some powerful people, Bawa stated that the organization is autonomous enough to look into a money laundering case involving suspended Attorney-General Ahmed Idris.
He said that an investigation resulted in the recovery of nearly N30 billion.
“The EFCC is independent; no one directs what we do, how we conduct investigations, or what to report and what not to report. No!
“We arrested the Accountant-General of the Federation as part of one of our most recent significant investigations.
The Federation’s Accountant-General was taken into custody. The EFCC has recovered approximately N30bn from those fraudulent operations that were found, and we are already bringing legal action against them, he said.
