N40bn probe: EFCC may declare ex-minister wanted, traces N30bn to private accounts

N40bn probe: EFCC may declare ex-minister wanted, traces N30bn to private accounts

Former Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development minister, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, on Wednesday failed to honour an invitation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

The former minister might be declared wanted by the EFCC, according to a report by The Nation.

The EFCC invited Umar-Farouq over the alleged laundering of N37, 170,855,753.44 during her tenure through a contractor, James Okwete.

The former minister has denied the allegations.

This came as the EFCC has frozen private and corporate bank accounts where N30 billion of the N44 billion National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA) money was moved.

The multiple accounts were reportedly used by some NSIPA officials.

It was learnt that the N44 billion was suspiciously moved from NSIPA’s accounts into private and corporate accounts linked to those serving as fronts.

Some of the officials of the agency have been undergoing investigation.

For hours on Wednesday, EFCC interrogators grilled the suspended National Coordinator/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the agency, Halima Shehu.

The anti-graft commission also arrested NSIPA’s immediate past Director of Finance and Accounts (DFA), Mr Bwai Adamu Hamza.

Hamza retired from the agency in December.

Shehu and Hamza were subjected to interrogation yesterday by a special team.

Investigations showed that the ongoing probe of NSIPA assumed a new dimension following the discovery that the total cash taken out of the agency’s vaults was N44 billion.