The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has appointed the immediate past Zonal head of the Rivers Branch of the anti-graft agency, Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa, as the head of its Lagos Field office.
According to an exclusive report from Peoples Gazette, Mr. Bawa is currently under investigation for corruption and theft of petrol tankers seized by the EFCC while he was head of the Port Harcourt office.
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According to the report, about 244 petrol trucks and tankers valued between N20m and N30m vanished from the custody after they were seized in operations led by Mr. Bawa. It was further alleged that the trucks were auctioned to the cronies of the top EFCC for N100,000 each.
The report further alleged other instances of discrepancies against the officer which led to a petition being written against him to the EFCC headquarters in Abuja.
This allegedly led to his arrest and detention for a few days in Port Harcourt while Ibrahim Magu acted as the Chairman of the commission.
He was subsequently transferred to the EFCC training school in Abuja pending the outcome of investigations against him before he was appointed as head of operations for the Lagos Office in August.
Citing several sources within the EFCC, the report alleged that one of the tanks auctioned for N100,000 by Mr. Bala was sold at N14 million by one of his proxies. It stated that the matter is being kept within the agency for fear of public attention being drawn to it.
Official sources stated that Bala’s actions cost Nigeria about N14.8 million in recovered assets.
“If you take a conservative approach and multiply the trucks by N20 million each, even though some were far above that price, you will arrive at N4.88 billion for the 244 trucks he sold out,” a senior EFCC official said. “So Bawa is being compensated for ensuring that nearly N5 billion did not go into the public treasury.” the report stated.