EFCC recovers N5bn from oil thieves

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Monday said it had recovered over N5bn from its investigations into the oil subsidy fraud. Also, the anti-graft agency disclosed that more than 40 suspects involved in the fraud are currently facing prosecution. EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, revealed these in an address presented on his behalf by the Commission’s Deputy Director, Public Affairs, Mr. Osita Nwajah, at a workshop on effective reporting of financial crimes in Enugu. Lamorde added that in the pension fraud matter, the EFCC has so far secured one conviction and recovered property valued at over a billion naira. He dismissed insinuations that the anti-graft agency has adopted a low profile in the anti-graft campaign. “A few cynics have in recent times talked about the commission maintaining a low profile. No such thing exists,” Lamorde said, adding that cases abound in the agency’s offices across the six zones of the country. He revealed that the EFCC is currently investigating a case of fraud in an old generation bank in Port Harcourt, where a customer, working with his wife who is a banker in a new generation bank, defrauded the bank of the sum of N855m. According to Lamorde, the suspect, identified as one Uchenna Ogbonnaya Dike, cashed in on system glitches to perpetrate the scam over a period of five months by transferring funds from the bank into accounts in the new generation bank. He stressed that the EFCC has intensified efforts to apprehend the suspects’ accomplices, who are currently on the run. “We are determined to check all incidences of fraud in the banking sector,” Lamorde assured. The EFCC boss urged media practitioners to continue reporting court cases involving financial crime beyond the arraignment stage.