Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Tom Ikimi has joined the rank of those brought under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in connection with some financial activities in the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).
The amount involved was unknown at at press time.
Besides Ikimi, the EFCC is already screening the records of some Bureau De Change (BDC) operators to identify how some of the suspects laundered their loot from arms deals.
Also, the commission arrested a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) for allegedly obstructing operatives from picking up a Beninoise.
The EFCC, it was gathered, stumbled on fresh records of transactions in ONSA which showed that the top PDP member might have been a beneficiary of the slush funds from ONSA.
A top source in EFCC said: “We have been interacting with Ikimi in the last few days on some financial activities in ONSA. At least, he has appeared twice before our team.
“So far, he has been on and off but we are not yet done with him. We have some outstanding issues to clear from him.”
Asked to be specific, the source added: “We won’t release the details now until we have reached an appreciable stage in our investigation.”
As at press time however, EFCC was screening the records of some BDC operators because some suspects implicated in the $2.1billion arms deals allegedly used the BDCs to launder funds.
Another source added: “We are already screening the transaction records of some BDCs in order to track down how some $2.1billion arms suspects launder their loot.
“Investigations have revealed how these high-profile suspects hauled foreign currencies to BDCs in exchange for Naira.
“The screening of the list will assist us in fishing out these suspects.”
At a meeting with BDC operators in January, the EFCC Chairman, Mr Ibrahim Magu said: “My operatives often tell me what they see during investigations. We need to talk to you, as some of your operators are fond of carrying huge amounts of money out of the country, since they can no longer withdraw more than $300 using the ATM.
‘‘There are fraudulent involvements of Bureau De Change operators in the arms deal scandal.
”There are reports of some of your members withdrawing as much as N500million in two, three, four tranches in this arms deal scam. So, I am greatly disturbed. I think there should be a documentation regarding your activities, as this will enable your group to checkmate anyone who is involved in any fraudulent activity.”
Meanwhile, the EFCC yesterday arrested the senior lawyer in Lagos for allegedly obstructing operatives from picking up a Beninoise suspect.
The lawyer was in custody at the time of filing this report.
The EFCC source said: “We have a Beninoise suspect whom our operatives wanted to arrest in Lagos but they were obstructed from performing their official duties by the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
“Based on the obstruction, the SAN has been arrested accordingly. He is currently undergoing interrogation in EFCC custody.”
The Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren confirmed the arrest.
He said: “The SAN is interacting with our team.”
