Police Recover $470m, N8bn NNPC Funds Hidden in Commercial Banks

Jimoh Moshood

Retrieve two vessels, seven speed boats, 83 trucks, others
Alex Enumah in Abuja

The Nigerian Police Thursday said it had succeeded in recovering monies belonging to the NNPC Brass/LNG Investment, which were supposed to be deposited in the Treasury Single Accounts (TSA) of the federal government.

According to a statement by the police, the money include, “ $470,519,889.10 belonging to NNPC Brass LNG Investment hidden in some commercial banks after the directives of the federal government on TSA.

Also recovered by the police was the sum of N8,807,264,834.96 belonging to NNPC/Brass Investment that was not remitted to TSA Account of the federal government.

The police also recovered N114, 290,000 in relation to the December 10, 2016, National and State Assembly re-run elections in Rivers State, which was recovered from 23 officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Jimoh Moshood, who issued the statement said the move were part of efforts to recover monetary and non-monetary assets of the federal government as well as the enforcement of the Firearms Act, mopping-up and recovery of all prohibited firearms and illegally acquired weapons in the country.

“On assumption of Office, the Inspector General of Police (IG) Ibrahim K. Idris, created special units to handle high profile cases, including terrorism, cyber and high-tech crimes, some of which includes the IG Monitoring Unit, Special Investigation Panel (SIP) and Task Force on Anti-Pipeline Vandalism.

“As a result of these efforts, the Nigeria Police Force recovered the following monetary and non-monetary assets for the federal government”, the statement read in part.

However, non monetary items recovered include, two vessels, seven speed boats, 83 trucks, 23 cars, including jeeps, 36 buses, 29 motorcycles, five speed boat engines and 38 pumping/drilling machines and generators.

In the area of arms and ammunitions, DCP Moshood said the police in the first batch recovered 6, 527 firearms; 14, 809 ammunitions, while it rcovered 3, 130 firearms and 12, 185 ammunitions in the second batch.

The statement however called on the public to furnish the police with useful information that will assist in further recovery of the government’s funds.