A tip-off by a whistle blower on Tuesday, 11 April has led to the discovery by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, of N4 billion kept in two separate accounts at the GTB Plc.
The money was suspected to be proceeds of crime.
Investigations as to the owner of the funds revealed that the money belongs to a former deputy governorship candidate in Niger State.
The suspect uses the names of two companies– Katah Property & Investment Limited and Sadiq Air Travel Agency- in laundering the funds.
Each of the company has N2 billion fixed in its deposit account domiciled in the bank.
The suspected owner of the account and the account officer are currently on the run.
Whistleblowers have become very active in recent days, exposing slush funds and accounts to the authorities, especially the EFCC.
The monies include €547,730 and £21,090 as well as N5,648,500 .
The total haul is about N250m at the prevailing exchange rate at the parallel market.
The interception followed information that about N250 million cash was being moved somewhere in the market for conversion into foreign currencies by unidentified persons.
Operatives responded timely, met the money in Bureau de Change office, but a chunk of it had been converted into Euro and Pounds sterling.
The BDC operators found in possession of the monies claimed they were acting on behalf of their boss who sent the money to them from one of the Northern states in Nigeria.
Two persons apprehended in the course of the raid are helping the Commission in its investigation.
Last week, it was also a whistleblower that led the EFCC operatives to a huge cash kept in bags at a Bureau de Change in LEGICO Plaza in Victoria Island in Lagos.
Operatives found N448.85m inside Shop 64, when it was forced open.
“There was no money found in shop 67, but in shop 64, heaps of Ghana-Must-Go bags were found on the floor of the shop.
“ When the bags were unzipped they were found to contain bundles of Naira notes totalling N448. 85million”, said EFCC Lagos spokesman Sam Amadin. (NAN)
