Friday, December 11, 2015

$2bn Arms Deal: EFCC Set To Summon Okonjo-Iweala, CBN Officials Following Shocking

There are strong indications that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) may soon summon former finance minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for questioning over allegations that she is in the know of how the $2bn meant for acquisition of arms meant to battle dreaded Islamist sect, Boko Haram was spent.

There had been exchange of hot words between the former coordinating minister of the economy and Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo state over allegations made by the latter that the former minister facilitated looting of funds by officials of the past administration.

Also, a letter written by the former minister to the immediate past president, Goodluck Jonathan to transfer a huge amount of money from the loot recovered from late General Sani Abacha to the former National Security Adviser (NSA) Sambo Dasuki was recently made public.

Following these revelations, the former minister may be summoned by the EFCC, which is said to have stumbled on fresh evidence that senior officials of the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria were actively involved in the transfer of funds to the suspects.

According to Vanguard, EFCC operatives are set to summon the former minister and some top officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to shed more light on what they know about the arms budget said to have been diverted by bigwigs of one of the political parties.

It was gathered that EFCC’s decision to summon the former minister and the apex bank officials followed the discoveries made that the bank played an active role in sending huge sums of money to persons and institutions at home and abroad without paying attention to due process.

Meanwhile, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, one those fingered in the multi-billion dollar arms deal scandal, has faced a huge setback in seeking bail from EFCC custody where he has been continuously interrogated for some days now.

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