EFCC uncovers fresh $72.8m Diezani loot
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it has uncovered a fresh looted sum of $72.87 million allegedly linked to former Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke.
The commission made this known in a statement on Wednesday, adding that a former Managing Director of Fidelity Bank, Nnamdi Okonkwo, had been arrested in connection with the said funds.
The EFCC said that the discovery of the fresh sum of $72, 870,000 was the outcome of its ongoing investigation of the former minister, adding that the money was still in the coffers of Fidelity bank.
The statement reads in part: “As part of the ongoing investigations into the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has arrested a former Managing Director of Fidelity Bank Plc, Nnamdi Okonkwo, allegedly over an additional $72, 870,000 million still in the coffers of the bank.
“Okonkwo, who is currently the Chairman of First Bank Holding, alongside others, had earlier been grilled over a sum of $153million and $115million by the Commission.
“While all the $153 million was recovered by the EFCC, the cases involving $115million, as it relates with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) bribery matter, are in various courts.
“Okonkwo and Charles Onyedibe are currently being detained by the EFCC over the whereabouts of the new $72.8m.”
Periscope International recalls that the anti-graft agency had accused Diezani of looting a whooping sum of $2.5 billion from the national treasury when she served as minister under the immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan.
The former minister had relocated to the United Kingdom after Jonathan lost his re-election bid in the 2015 general election.
While she is being tried in absentia and currently facing extradition charges, the EFCC has since seized some of the properties linked to her.
