Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday raided the headquarters of the Dangote Group in connection with ongoing investigation into foreign exchange allocations.
According to PREMIUM TIMES, on arrival at the headquarters of one of Africa’s largest conglomerates in Lagos, the EFCC operatives demanded documents relating to allocation of foreign exchange to the group in the last 10 years.
They then scrutinised the documents for hours, carting some of them away.
EFCC had reportedly written to 52 companies directing them to supply documents supporting the allocation and utilisation of foreign currencies to them in the last 10 years.
The EFCC letter to the companies is part of ongoing investigation into alleged preferential foreign exchange allocations to individuals and organisation by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under Mr. Godwin Emefiele’s leadership.
In the past months, investigators had accused the CBN of favouring and enriching some individuals and companies through non-transparent allocation of foreign exchange to them.
Last December, PREMIUM TIMES reported how the forensic audit of the CBN under Emefiele uncovered 593 bank accounts domiciled in the United States, the United Kingdom and China in which Nigerian funds were deposited without authorisation from the board and investment committee of the apex bank.
The special investigator revealed that 543.4 million sterling pounds was kept by Emefiele in fixed deposit accounts, adding that the ex-CBN chief manipulated the Naira exchange rate and committed fraud in the e-Naira project.
A source said that, while some of the companies the EFCC wrote to had since complied, others asked for more time to gather thinformation and documents.
But in a surprising move, the EFCC stormed Dangote headquarters on Thursday just as the company tried to surrender boxes of documents to the anti-graft agencies,
“The Dangote people intimated the EFCC that the documents were ready and that they were bringing them over”, a source familiar with the matter told PREMIUM TIMES. “But the EFCC said its operatives would rather come to the company to collect the documents”.
The source said such Gestapo tactics by the EFCC could discourage foreign investors from coming to Nigeria.
“The Dangote Group is perhaps Africa’s largest conglomerate and it is troubling that the EFCC could deal with it in an unnecessary show of force especially when it is not obstructing its investigation in any form”, the source added.
EFCC spokesman, Mr. Dele Oyewale said: “I can confirm that our men are there, but I can’t comment on the reason for their presence there”.
