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- Pix(above): Ex-AGF Ahmed Idris
Suspended Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris has reportedly returned N30 billion out of the N109 billion looted funds.
This was disclosed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chairman, Abdurasheed Bawa on Thursday, December 15, 2022, while featuring in a ministerial press briefing at the State House, Abuja.
The EFCC who allayed fears that the anti-graft agency could be a tool in the hands of some influential individuals, said the anti-graft agency remains independent enough to investigate the suspended Accountant-General, Ahmed Idris, over the alleged money laundering case.
An investigation, he said, had led to the recovery of over N30 billion, adding that “the EFCC is independent; nobody tells us what to do or investigate, how to investigate, or what to cover and what not to cover. No!
“One of the last major investigations we did was that we arrested the Accountant-General of the Federation. Out of those fraudulent activities discovered, the EFCC has recovered over N30 billion, and we’re already prosecuting them.”
Bawa also disclosed that EFCC has not closed the N7.1 billion fraud case against former governor of Abia State and Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu.
Kalu had approached a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, for an order to bar the EFCC from retrying him, arguing that a Supreme Court decision which ordered a retrial of the fraud case did not include him as a party in the retrial.
The court had granted Kalu’s plea, ordering the anti-graft agency to exclude him from the retrial of a case for which he had been tried and convicted.
Responding to a question on the issue during the briefing, Bawa said the former governor was yet to be discharged, nor acquitted, adding that the EFCC was still pursuing the matter against him.
His words: “My friend here asked about Senator Orji Uzor Kalu. The prosecution lasted for 12 years or so and he was convicted by the court. He went to the Supreme Court and the court said, yes, because he was elevated to the Court of Appeal, it cannot come back to the lower court and that he should be retried in Lagos.
“So we wanted to arraign him almost immediately in Lagos, for the prosecution to start all over again and then he went to court, challenging that he has been discharged and acquitted. Nobody discharged and acquitted him, we are still pursuing the matters in court here in Abuja. So the matter is still ongoing.”/SHARE THIS
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