EFCC: Over N30bn recovered from suspended accountant-general

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it has recovered over N30 billion from the alleged fraud committed by Ahmed Idris, suspended accountant-general of the federation (AGF).

Abdulrasheed Bawa, the EFCC chairperson, made this known on Thursday during a press briefing organised by the presidential communications team at the presidential villa, Abuja.

BACKGROUND

In May, TheCable reported how Idris was arrested in Kano after he failed to respond to invitations by the commission to answer questions over the allegation of N80 billion fraud.

Some days later, Idris was suspended indefinitely “without pay” by Zainab Ahmed, the minister of finance, budget and national planning.

In July, he was arraigned alongside Godfrey Olusegun Akindele and Mohammed Kudu Usman, as well as a firm — Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited.

The EFCC said Idris and his co-defendants are indicted on a 14-count charge of stealing and criminal breach of trust to the tune of N109.5 billion.

‘EFCC IS AN INDEPENDENT AGENCY’

Speaking during the press briefing, Bawa said the commission is independent without anybody influencing its activities.

“EFCC is independent. Nobody is telling us what to do, what to investigate, how to investigate, how to recover or what not to recover.

“Give us intel. We have been asking people to give us intel and we will do it.

“The last major investigation that we did was that we arrested the AGF. Out of that fraudulent activities, EFCC has recovered over N30 billion and we are already prosecuting them.”