The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, has disclosed that plans are underway to go after some outgoing governors, ministers and other public officials after May 29.
Mr Bawa, who made the disclosure during an interview with Daily Trust, said that at least two ministries are currently under the radar of the commission for fraudulent activities that border on procurement processes.
According to him, one of the ministries committed fraud on about 20 contracts to the tune of N4 billion.
“Currently, we’re investigating two ministries where double payments were made. In one of the ministries, the double payments, cumulatively, were about 20 contracts of over N4bn,” Mr Bawa disclosed.
“These were contracts that were done way back 2018, and then some group of people, so bold, came up with the same narration.
“They moved the documents from the file, forged them, and then of course in conspiracy of some civil servants, raised vouchers and pay. How can that happen if we have digitalised procurement processes,” he added.
Speaking on how recovered loots are being spent, the EFCC boss said some of the proceeds of crime were being expended on critical infrastructure in the country as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Mr Bawa listed Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the Second-Niger Bridge and Abuja-Kano Expressway as some of the infrastructures where the recoveries are being expended.
“With the coming of POCA (Proceeds of Crime Act) into law, there is a provision in the law that all stakeholder organisations must open a confiscated and forfeited property’s accounts.
“You will recall that the president signed the bill into law on the 12th of May, 2022, to be precise, and we are the first agency to open those accounts.
“Before the passage of POCA, all monies belonging to the federal government would be put into the Consolidated Revenue Funds but now, we put it into POCA.
“We transferred N110 billion into that account, $29 million into the dollar account, more than 6 million Euros into the Euros account, and about 1.7 million pounds into the pounds account.
“The president instructed that those monies be utilised to complete the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, the Second-Niger Bridge and Abuja-Kano expressway,” he said.
