The House of Representatives has asked the Federal Government to return the sum of $40.38 million recovered by the Special Presidential Investigation Panel (SPIP) to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Acting chairman, House ad-hoc committee on ‘assessment and status of all recovered loot, movable and immovable assets from 2002 to 2020 by agencies of the Federal Government for effective, efficient management and utilisation, Sada Soli stated this at the resumed hearing of the panel.
According to the lawmakers, the money was recovered from keystone Bank and deposited into the Federal Government Recovery Account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Responding to lawmakers’ concerns, the managing director of Keystone Bank, Lawal Ahmed explained that the new management of the bank has since resuming duty transferred part of the money in four tranches into the NNPC’s TAS Account with CBN.
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The ad-hoc committee had earlier directed the Nigeria Police Fraud Unit to serve a court order to some bank chiefs to compel them to appear in person before the Ad-hoc Committee on various allegations
The ad-hoc committee also resolved to place the sums of N356 million and N1.1 billion promissory note transferred by EFCC on further inquiry.
“Since we are not able to agree, let me put it before the Committee that the amount in question 87 million sent to Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) by EFCC and deposited by.AMCON is hereby queried and put on further inquiry,” Soli said.
The committee, therefore, requested details of all Promissory Notes in possession of the Corporation obtained from Debt Management Office (DMO) through EFCC.
In his presentation, AMCON head of enforcement, Usman Abubakar noted that the two promissory note were wrongfully issued in favour of EFCC and was rejected.
Abubakar however observed that EFCC returned the promissory note to DMO which acceded to issue a fresh promissory note in favour of AMCON, in the sum of N328 million and N866 million.
He said the SPIP has refused to make available photocopies of the promissory notes to the Corporation till it winded down, adding that the office of the Attorney General of the Federation also declined to respond to the Corporation’s request.
The panel further resolved to investigate the actual amount recovered by the Special Presidential Investigation Panel on the sum of N35 billion recovered on behalf of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) against the N43 billion worth of post-dated cheques issued by some of the debtors.
The FMBN in the documents submitted to the ad-hoc committee showed that the sum of N15.3 billion was recovered by the SPIP.
Addressing lawmakers, FMBB Managing Director, Abdulkadir Dangiwa disclosed that the bank has recovered 15 hectares of land from some of the defaulting estate developers and the estate constructed on the 40-hectares of land, adding that the bank is in possession of the certificate of occupancy on the land.
