The House of Representatives has demanded to know the status of the $44 million dollars recovered from the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA) by Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) in 2017 at Osborne Apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos State.
Chairman, House of adhoc Committee investigating the management of recovered fund and movable and immovable assets between 2002 and 2020, Adejoro Adeogun made this demand at the resumed hearing of the Committee in Abuja.
Adeogun had quoted the EFCC Chairman, Abdurasheed Bawa as saying the fund recovered from the infamous Osborne Apartment in Ikoyi was in the custody of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).
But the Director of Finance and Administration in the Office of the National Security Adviser, Ja’afaru Mohammed, told the Committee that the ONSA has nothing to do with recovered funds and assets.
Mohammed who represented the National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno countered the EFCC by telling the Committee that the NIA money was not with the ONSA and that the office has nothing to do with recovered funds or the management of such.
He explained that the only money recovered from the NIA was about 41 million dollars which was the funds seen in its vaults during investigation and restructuring of the agency, and had since been returned to the NIA on the directive of the President.
The Brigadier General said: “The NIA was under investigation and the President directed that the ONSA should take charge of the place. I was sent there to take charge of the funds of the agency. I went there and counted the money in their vault and it was about 41 million dollars.
“We kept that money and after the investigation, the President ordered that the money be returned to the agency. We have returned it to the owners as directed by the President”.
He also told the Committee that the President established a Presidential Committee on recovered assets whose activities is coordinated by the Office of the National Security Adviser, but was quick to add that the ONSA has no input into the operations of the committee as it operates independently of the ONSA.
Mohammed stated that funds recovered by the Committee are paid directly into the Recovered Funds account with the Central Bank of Nigeria, adding that the money can only be deposited into the account, but none can be withdrawn from it.
While frowning at spending of money from the recovered funds without appropriation, the Committee Chairman said the explanation of the Accountant General on why funds are taken from the Recovery Account was not justifiable.
Adeogun told a representative of the Accountant General that: “You have the financial regulations in front of you. I want you to read the sections that talks about payment from revenue accounts, what should happen to a revenue account and at what point monies can be taken from the Consolidated Revenue Fund. It is a consolidated account.
“That explanation is not satisfactory. Even when the Accountant General came here, we told him that was not satisfactory because there should be regulations on the operations of the recovery account. The fact that you decided to start the TSA does not in any way amend the constitution or the Financial Regulations.
“When Nigeria decided that it was going to recover loots, it was part of the fight against corruption and the whole essence of that is that the fight against corruption was going to be transparent and transparency means that recovered funds should be used judiciously”.
However, the Accountant General’s representative and Head of Funds, Sabo Mohammed told the Committee that the Accountant General only processes payments based on approvals.
He said “We do not habitually pay money from any source without the necessary approvals if we have approvals that payment should be made from a particular account, we have no option than to obey and pay from that account. We have to paid to pay money from any source. We operate the TSA and all accounts are subset of the CRF. The recovery account is operated as a subset of the CRF”.
For Police Force, the representative of the Inspector General of Police and the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of Force Criminal Investigation Department, Joseph Egbunike told the Committee that the Police had been able to recover over $400 million and some immovable property.
The Committee however, queried the inability of the police to keep proper records of monies recovered by the Force and the official not being in a position to explain why the force does not have a recovery account like other agencies.
The Committee Chairman said: “most of the agencies have a recovery account where they pay money into. But the police don’t seem to have that. You have heard us talk about NSA recovery account, EFCC recovery account etc. That way, it is easier to track what has been paid into the account.
“We are looking at the gaps in the recovery process. You don’t have account and it means that you don’t have proper records of what has been paid. Yes, there are one or two instances of payment. But it gives the impression that the police just pay tithe in what they recover. That is a wrong procedure and it gives room for stealing”.
The Committee therefore, asked the representative of the Inspector General of Police to go and reconcile his records and report back to it on Friday with information on where all recovered immovable items where located, whether they have been disposed of or not.
