N37.1 Billion Fraud: EFCC Tracks, Freezes N30bn Out Of N40bn Moved From NSIPA Accounts

The EFCC allegedly freezes N30 billion of the N44 billion taken from NSIPA accounts, hours after President Tinubu suspended NSIPA head Halima Shehu

N30 billion of the N44 billion taken out of the National Social Investment Program Agency's accounts has been tracked down and frozen by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, or EFCC. The Nation's NSIPA report is out.

The event occurred less than a day after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu suspended Halima Shehu, the troubled NSIPA National Coordinator, and she was taken into custody and arrested by EFCC.

The numerous accounts through which certain NSIPA officials moved the anti-graft agency were reportedly frozen on Wednesday as part of an ongoing investigation, according to a source. “After hours of interrogation and profiling of many accounts, the EFCC confirmed that unauthorised N44 billion was suspiciously moved out of NSIPA's account to some private and corporate accounts.”

The EFCC interrogated Shehu about the purported fraud on Wednesday. Bwai Adamu Hamza, the direct former Director of Finance and Accounts, DFA, of NSIPA, was also detained by the anti-graft commission. Hamza left the organization in December to retire. Shehu and Hamza were questioned yesterday by a dedicated team. In order to achieve this, the EFCC tracked the cash movement and recovered N30 billion that was linked to several accounts, freezing it.

The agency had intercepted and seized N17 billion as of Tuesday. The commission located and frozen an extra N13 billion in certain accounts in less than a day, bringing the total amount of money taken into custody to N30 billion. It was discovered that N44 billion had been surreptitiously transferred from NSIPA's accounts into business and private accounts connected to front companies.

This is in response to Halima Shehu's former minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management, and social development, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, declining the EFCC's invitation to appear for questioning. Umar-Farouq was invited by the EFCC due to allegations that she laundered N37, 170,855,753.44 while she was employed, allegedly through the contractor James Okwete. The accusations were refuted by the former minister.