The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Sokoto State has arrested two Chinese Men for attempting to bribe it’s top officers with N100 million.
According to the official Twitter handle of the EFCC, Mr. Weng Mei Kun and Mr. Xu Koi were arrested after handing over a sum of N50 million to the zonal head of the anti-graft Commission, Abdullahi Lawal.
The sum was supposed to be the first installment of a N100 million bribe intended to compromise the EFCC and scuttle it’s investigation of a Chinese construction company, China Zhonghao Nig. ltd.
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The EFCC is currently investigating contracts handled by the construction firm for Zamfara State worth N50 billion between 2012 and 2019.
Both Chinese were arressted on Monday after trying to bribe officials at the Sokoto office of the Commission on airport road while the cash was taken in as evidence.
Excerpts from a statement released by EFCC read;
EFCC Arrests Two Chinese For Offering N100m Bribe To Its Top Officer
The Sokoto Zonal Office of the EFCC, has arrested two Chinese: Mr. Meng Wei Kun and Mr. Xu Koi for offering a sum of N50,000,000 as bribe to its Zonal Head, Mr. Abdullahi Lawal. The suspects were arrested on Monday, May 11, 2020 in Sokoto.
The bribe was allegedly offered in a desperate bid to compromise ongoing investigations of a construction company, China Zhonghao Nig. Ltd, handling contracts awarded by the Zamfara State Government in the sum of N50,000,000,000.00(Fifty Billion Naira) between 2012 to 2019.
The zonal office of the Commission is investigating the construction company, in connection with the execution of contracts for the construction of township roads in Gummi, Bukkuyun, Anka and Nassarawa towns of Zamfara state; and also the construction of one hundred and sixty eight (168) solar- powered boreholes in the 14 local government areas of the state.
Alarmed by the consistency and professionalism of investigation being conducted, the company reached out to Lawal with an offer of N100,000,000( One Hundred Million Naira) as bribe to “bury” the matter.
In a grand design to trap the corrupt officials, Lawal played along.
On Monday, two representatives of the company Meng Wei Kun and Xu Kuoi offered him cash totalling fifty million naira in their office along airport road, Sokoto.
The cash was offered as a first installment.
The suspects were promptly arrested with the cash as an evidence.
Investigation of the construction company was informed by an intelligence on alleged conspiracy; misappropriation of public funds; embezzlement; official corruption;abuse of office, stealing and money laundering obtained against the Zamfara state government through inflated and uncompleted contracts awarded to the company.
Investigations have so far revealed that China Zounghao Ltd has received payments of over N41,000,000,000.00 (Forty One Billion Naira) from the Zamfara state government …out of which about N16,000,000,000.00 (Sixteen Billion Naira) equivalent to over $53,000,000.00(Fifty Three Million US Dollars) was allegedly diverted and traced to some bureau de change operators
The suspects would soon be charged to court.”