Presidential panel recovers over N4bn, $7m

The Special Presidential Investigation Panel on Recovery of Public Property (SPIP) has  recovered over N4 billion and $7 million cash as well as physical assets believed to have been illegally acquired, its chairman, Mr Okoi Obono-Obla, announced yesterday.

Obono-Obla said in a statement in Abuja that the $7 million was recovered from the previous management of the Nigeria Export and Import (NEXIM) Bank which had “illegally placed” it in Heritage Bank.

The naira component of the recoveries, according to him, includes N533 million and land valued at N1.5 billion also from the former NEXIM management.

The assets, according to him, have since been returned to the bank.

Obono-Obla said SPIP also recovered N24 million misappropriated by some directors of the National Theatre, and two hectares of land worth N2 billion, belonging to the National Council for Acts and Culture.

Also recovered is part of Agura Hotel belonging to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), according to the chairman.

“The property illegally annexed by some so-called powerful persons with untouchable connections for over 20 years, has since been returned to the NPA.

“The panel is investigating the failure of a contract awarded to a company to dredge Calabar Channel, after the company had received 12 million dollars,” he said.

Obono-Obla said the panel also recovered 86 assorted vehicles valued at N500 million from a director in the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.

“Other assets recovered from him are six houses in highbrow areas of Abuja and a large farm also in Abuja,” he said.

Obono-Obla also said the panel is now spreading its dragnet abroad with assets illegally acquired overseas by serving and past public officers with looted funds as targets.

The panel, he said,is partnering the UK Home Secretary to  deny suspected Nigerian looters entry into that country.

He said that the panel had written to the UK Serious Fraud Office  and the U.S Treasury Office requesting investigation and seizure of assets worth millions of pounds corruptly acquired in both countries by certain Nigerian public officers.

He said a particular    public officer  stashed stolen millions of British pounds in his London residence.

He did not name the suspect.

Another unidentified public officer is said to own a property in Florida,USA, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

He said that the panel had provided the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) with information on property worth millions of dollars and pounds acquired abroad by some Nigerian public office holders.

The SPIP was inaugurated by the then Acting President Yemi Osinbajo in August, 2017.