EFCC recovered N511.9bn in 2017, says Magu

Ibrahim Magu, acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), says the commission recovered about N511.9 billion in 2017.

Magu said this on Monday when he appeared before a budget defence session organised by the house of representatives committee on financial crimes.

He listed the monies recovered to include N473.065 billion, $89,258,124.97, £294,851.82, €7,247,363.75, 443,400 dirhams and 70,500.00 South African rand.

Giving a breakdown of the figures, he said the monies include the more than $43million discovered in an apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos state and the N449 million discovered at a plaza in Victoria Island, also in Lagos.

He also included “the N32 billion and $5 million which was forfeited to the federal government by a former minister of petroleum resources”.

The EFCC chairman added that the commission also recovered more than N329 billion from petroleum marketers in Kano, €6.6 million on behalf of the Nigerian Ports Authority as well as another N1.1 billion by Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).

Also recovered were the N27.7 billion being withheld in tax by banks, the more than N4 billion recovered as subsidy fraud funds among others.

While briefing the committee on EFCC’s performance of the 2017 budget as well as its proposed 2018 budget, Magu said: “A major challenge in the implementation of the capital estimates is the late and insufficient release of funds appropriated.

“Presently, funds have not been released for the furnishing of the new head office complex expected to be handed over by March 2018. We need the committee’s intervention in that regard.”