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By Amechi Ogbonna
The Federal Government anti-corruption war has continued to yield dividend across the country as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), yesterday, said it recovered over N328.9 billion out of N349.8 billion debts owed the Federal Government from nine major petroleum marketers over the last one year.
Mr Adamu Hamisu-Danmusa, the EFCC Head of Operation, North West Zone, Kano, disclosed this while addressing newsmen in Kano on Tuesday.
He said the debts, which included legacy/bad debts and current obligations were recovered following report from the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) to the Commission.
“The IPMAN reported to the commission that there are some major marketers that connived with NNPC officials and received fuel allocation but refused to pay the money into the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
“So after investigation, we were able to find out that there was N349.8 billion as legacy/bad debts and debts on current transactions.
“The Commission was able to make recoveries of N328.8 billion from the nine major marketers from July 2016 to July 2017,” he said.
Hamisu-Danmusa said the Commission was still making effort to ensure the remaining debts were recovered from the marketers and remitted into the Federal Government’s Consolidated Account.
Also recovered by the Commission were huge amount of money from other cases reported by individuals, corporate bodies and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
“The money include N364.4 million, 4.7 million dollars, 60,050 pounds, 59,200 euro and 70,500 Saudi Riyals.
“The money was recovered between January to date, “ Hamisu-Danmusa said.
He said the Commission recovered N305,000 from a Chinese national arrested at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, on July 25.
The Chinese, Mr Ma Youngin, who could not speak English language, was apprehended by Customs officials with the money while on his way to Dubai.
Another suspect was also arrested at Malam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, with 849 different ATM (debit) cards, stressing that investigation was still ongoing into the two cases, and that as soon as the funding were concluded, the suspects would be charged to court.
