• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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EFCC recovers N329bn debts from 9 major oil marketers

It was revelation galore as Nigeria`s anti-graft agency-Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), says it recovered over N329 billion from nine Oil major marketers indebted to Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in respect of refined fuel products supply to them.

The Agency also recovered another sum of N305,000 minted notes of five  Naira denomination from a Chinese national who attempted smuggling the note through Kano International Airport to Dubai.

Adamu Hamisu Danmusa, head of EFCC operations in North West Office in Kano, made this disclosure on Tuesday, while briefing journalists on the operational performance of the Agency in the zone in the past seven months.

A breakdown of the total monies recovered indicates that a total of about N87 billion was recovered out of about #92 billion declared as bad debts tagged  ‘Legacy Debts’ from petroleum products supplied by NNPC to the nine major oil marketers.

In the same vein, a total of over N242 billion was recovered from about N258 billion tagged as ‘Debts on Current Transaction’ of petroleum products provided by NNPC to the major oil marketers.

According to Danmusa, the monies were recovered by the agency after an investigation prompted by a petition which originated from a group of indigenous petroleum marketers operating under the platform of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN).

He stated that the petition concerning the indebtedness of the nine Oil Majors within the period of July 2016 to July 2017 was made available to the Agency by IPMAN and a proactive investigation made by operatives of the zonal command across the country led to the recovery of the monies.

Commenting on the total specific cases investigated since the beginning of the year, he noted that total of 260 cases involving individuals and corporate bodies were investigated.

Out the cases, the EFCC zonal head of operations, revealed that 31 of the total cases were taken to court, 24 out of the number of persons taken to court where sentenced to various jail terms.

Danmusa further disclosed that the Agency has not concluded investigation into the debt issue owned NNPC by the nine Oil Majors, and commended the management of the Corporation for the assistance given which led to the recovery of the debts.

Giving insight about a Chinese national who attempted minted currency to Dubai, he explained that the accuse, with the name –Ma Yonvin, towards the end of last month (July), was intercepted by a combined team of Security personnel at the Kano airport.

On other arrest made, Danmusa said another accuse who is a Nigerian, with the name Yasir S. Abdullahi , was also arrested while trying to smuggled 894 ATM cards belonging to some banks in the country to Dubai through the Kano airport.