Nigeria’s financial oversight agency, EFCC, reports that as part of an ongoing corruption investigation involving a suspended minister, the country has recovered 30 billion naira ($24 million).
The agency disclosed that this sum was traced across more than 50 bank accounts.
The suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, faced initial suspension in January amid accusations of diverting $640,000 of public funds into a personal bank account.
Following this development, President Bola Tinubu directed an inquiry into the affairs of her ministry.
At the outset, Dr. Edu, aged 37, refuted any allegations of misconduct. Her office clarified that while she authorised the transfer to a personal account not under her name, it was intended for the “implementation of grants to vulnerable groups.”
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) stated that during their ongoing six-week investigation, they have uncovered numerous leads warranting further scrutiny.
“As it is now, we are investigating over 50 bank accounts that we have traced money into. That is no child’s play. That’s a big deal,” its chairman Ola Olukoyede said in the latest edition of the agency’s monthly e-magazine, EFCC Alert.
He urged Nigerians seeking redress to give the agency time to finish its probe thoroughly.
“We are exploring so many discoveries that we have stumbled upon in our investigation. If it is about seeing people in jail, well let them wait, everything has a process to follow,” he said.
The EFCC chairman gave an assurance that the recovered funds were “already in the coffers of the federal government”.
