EFCC recovers N30bn from suspended AGF
Idris Ahmed, the temporarily suspended Accountant-General of the Federation, was the subject of a recovery effort, according to Abdulrasheed Bawa, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
At the Ministerial Briefing hosted by the Presidential Communication Team on Thursday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, he made this statement.
The suspended AGF is currently being sued by the commission for allegedly defrauding N109 billion.
When discussing the accomplishments of the EFCC from January to December 2022, the director listed other recoveries as N134,33,759,574.25, $121,769,076.30, £21,020.00, €156,925.00, 21,350.00, and CFA300,000.00, among others.
Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, a former governor of Abia State and chief whip of the Senate, is accused of defrauding the government out of N7.1 billion, according to Bawa, who also discussed the actions carried out under his direction thus far.
Senator Kalu argued that a Supreme Court judgement ordering a retrial of the fraud case did not include him as a party in the retrial and therefore asked an Abuja Federal High Court to issue an order prohibiting the EFCC from retrying him.
The anti-graft agency was ordered to keep Kalu out of the retrial of the case for which he had already been tried and found guilty after the court accepted his plea.
In response to a query during the briefing, Bawa stated that the former governor had neither been released nor found not guilty, adding that the EFCC was still investigating the case against him.
My acquaintance over here wanted to know about Senator Orji Uzor Kalu,” he stated. He was found guilty by the court after a roughly 12-year prosecution. He went to the Supreme Court, where the justices ruled that since he had been promoted to the Court of Appeal, the case could not be returned to the lower court and that he should be tried again in Lagos.
“As a result, we intended to arraign him relatively quickly in Lagos so that the prosecution could begin anew, but he went to court to argue that he had already been released and acquitted, and no one had done either, so we are still pursuing the cases in court here in Abuja. Therefore, the situation is still open.
Bawa asserted that the administration was serious about its anti-corruption effort and added that throughout the time, 3,615 convictions had been recorded.
The sale of more than 150 homes to interested purchasers would take place after the nationwide auction of confiscated cars, he revealed.
By the time the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering (SCMUL) is completely established, he guaranteed, it will be challenging to launder money in the nation.
