The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it recovered over N1.5bn in cash from the south-south geo-political zone between the second and third quarters of 2018.
The disclosure was made by the agency’s south-south zonal director, Nnaghe Obono-Itam, during a chat with newsmen on Wednesday, October 3, Punch reports.
We gathered that the cash was recovered from those investigated for alleged fraudulent practices within the period under review.
Without mentioning names of the suspects, Obono-Itam explained that the sums of $678,354.80 and 5,254 euros were also recovered from suspected corrupt persons whose cases were still under investigation.
He further revealed that operatives of the commission had recently apprehended members of a syndicate that specialised in selling fake WAEC, NECO and JAMB forms to unsuspecting members of the public.
He identified the leader of the gang as Emeka Obunoha aka Netforce; and added that the suspects had since been charged to court.
He said: “We have done recoveries of N1,592,568,524.38, made up of N466,486,038.68 and N1,126,082,485.07 as money held in account. Out of that, we have N1,000,036,448.06 on interim forfeiture with the federal government.
“We also have a total recovery of $678,354.80, cash of $402,425.89 and we have $275, 928.91 in account of PND (Post-no-Deposit) as well. We have 5, 254.20 euros with 5,225 euros as cash and 29.20 euros in account of PND.
“Again, we had in the second quarter received a complaint about a syndicate that uses online medium to sell fake results for WAEC, NECO and the rest. I am glad to say that we have been able to break that syndicate.
“The complaint came through the Civil Society Network Against Corruption; they actually wrote a petition to us about people who leak examination papers of WAEC, NECO and JAMB.
“Our men went to work; one Emeka Obunoha, alias Netforce, was arrested. He (Emeka) has done a lot of harm to us and to the country through their website: www.examscore.com.”
Meanwhile, we previously reported that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was alerted about alleged corrupt practices being carried out by foreign contractors.
The alarm was raised by the Nigerian Young Professionals Forum (NYPF) and Connected Development (CODE).
