The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has said that it has recovered $100 million from Integrated Logistics Services (INTELS), belonging to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
Chairman of the anti-graft agency, Abdulradheed Bawa, who disclosed this Thursday said the recovery was part of its achievements in recent times in its efforts to stem the tide of fraudulent practices in the country.
Former Vice President Abubakar Atiku had major shares in INTELS until recently when he announced his resignation and withdrawal from the company.
Speaking during the weekly Ministerial Briefing organized by the Presidential Media Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Bawa said the agency would continue to perform its obligations both to government and individuals including private organizations, without fear or favour.
According to him, the successes so far achieved by the EFCC under his watch in the last 100 days of his headship of the Commission does not involve recoveries for only the federal government, but all victims of fraud.
He recalled that the Commission recovered a total of $100 million for the NPA from some of the outstanding remittances that INTELS owed the country.
The anti graft agency boss who also spoke on the case of the former Minister who reportedly bought a property with $37 million, said he was not referring to a serving minister, but a former Minister of Petroleum Resources.
Bawa had on Tuesday in an interview with Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, disclosed that EFCC investigated a female minister, who bought $37.5million property from a bank and deposited $20 million cash.
He had also identified the real estate sector as a major conduit for money laundering, saying 90 to 100 percent of stolen public funds are used for the procurement of houses and lands.
“We investigated a matter in which a bank MD marketed a property to a minister and agreed to purchase it at $37.5 million.
“The bank then sent a vehicle to her house to evacuate $20 million from her house in the first instance,” he had said.
-Alex Akao
