EFCC Goes Against NIA
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday got a Federal High Court in Lagos to grant a temporary forfeiture of the sums of $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 (totalling $43.6 million or N13.3 billion) belonging to the National Intelligence Agency (NIA). EFCC can be called the sister to NIA which is a highly secretive organisation in Nigeria’s security circles, is the government agency that oversees foreign intelligence and counterintelligence operations in the country.
With the forfeiture order on the cash recovered by the commission from an apartment in the Ikoyi area of Lagos State on Wednesday, EFCC got the court to temporarily seize monies that were meant for an ongoing covert operation and had been hidden in a safe house back to the government coffers.
The court order also came on the heels of the raid by EFCC operatives on the Abuja residence of the former Managing Director of NNPC Retail, Mrs. Esther Ogbue, and her invitation to the commission’s office for interrogation over the expropriation of NNPC’s petroleum products stored in Capital Oil and Gas Limited and MRS Oil Plc’s facilities in Lagos.
On Thursday, it was reported that the cash haul discovered in Apartment 7B, No. 16 Osborne Road, Ikoyi, belonged to her. According to reports, it was learnt that the cash had been stashed away in the apartment by NIA for a covert operation but was shocked on Wednesday when news broke that its operation had been compromised by the acting Chairman of the EFCC Ibrahim Magu and his personnel.
