The Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa has revealed that the estimated value of the forfeited jewelry to the federal government by the former petroleum minister, Deziani Alison Maduake is put at N14.416 billion.
NEWSDIARYONLINE also reports that the estimated value of the houses, forfeited by her is put at $80 million.
Bawa made the revelation when he appeared before the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on “Assessment and Status of all recovered loots, Movable and Immovable Assets from 2002 to 2020 by agencies of federal government of Nigeria for effective management and utilization (HR 06/07/20)”.
“The Deziani jewelries are in our custody, they have not been auctioned yet. They have been finally forfeited in 2019, just like houses, vehicles, etc. The estimated value in naira is given at N14.416 billion. The Commission is looking to the presidential committee to auction all those items and deposit the money appropriately.
“We couldn’t move on to auction them because of certain things that happened, but now the Federal Government has set up a committee, we are praying that it will come to an end very soon when all the items are auctioned, not only that of Deziani,” the chairman said while responding to committee questions.
According to him, dealing with it on case-by-case basis would restrict the victims of the assets from turning round, to make attempt to take them back after serving their punishment.
Bawa explained that the commission would digitalize their operations and continue to keep all their books open in order to be more transparent and secure the cooperation of other national and international organizations.
The chairman said the EFCC had created four new departments thus: intelligence, operations, upgraded procurement and internal affairs unit to full departments and a full department of Information and Communication Technology, ICT.
Responding to the House Ad-hoc committee chairman, Adejoro Adeogun on “looting the loot”, Bawa said “there is nothing like that”, adding that they are “determined to do our best. Action speaks louder than words”.
The committee resolved to invite the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele to appear before it on Thursday, June 3.
