EFCC reportedly takes over NIA's bank accounts

dimeji akinloye

May 15, 2017 7:27 PM

EFCC operatives compelled the NIA director of Finance and Administration to hand over the agency's accounts to an army officer attached to the NSA.

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The EFCC was said to have taken charge of the accounts on Friday, May 12.

This is the latest in a string of measures against the NIA following the discovery of N13 billion in a Lagos apartment in April this year.

The NIA had laid claim to the cash haul - $43.5 million, £27,800 and N23.2 million hidden inside Apartment 7B at Osborne Towers, Ikoyi.

According to Premium Times, which cited security sources, EFCC operatives on Friday compelled the NIA director of Finance and Administration to hand over the agency's accounts to an army officer attached to the Office of the National Security Adviser.

The report said the EFCC designated Jaafaru Mohammed, a brigadier general in the Nigerian Army, to assume the position of the Director of Finance of the NIA and commence a holistic audit of the agency’s finances.

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The action is believed to be as a result of a week-long interrogation of four senior officials of the NIA by EFCC detectives.

It was gathered that the NSA had twice tried to impose Mohammed on the NIA as its new Director of Finance but officials of the agency rejected him.

The EFCC was said to have invited the senior officials from NIA's account department following Mohammed's rejection.

The EFCC on Friday reportedly detained the NIA’s Director of Finance and Administration for several hours.

The anti-graft agency later took him back to the NIA Headquarters where he was compelled to hand over to Mohammed, the report said.

dimeji akinloye