Alleged Oil Subsidy Fraud: EFCC Has Recovered Funds From Nadabo Energy Boss – Bawa

Alleged Oil Subsidy Fraud: EFCC Has Recovered Funds From Nadabo Energy Boss – Bawa

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it has recovered some funds from Abubakar Peters and his company, Nadabo Energy Limited, who are facing N1.4 billion fuel subsidy fraud charges.

EFCC chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, said this on Monday in his testimony as a prosecution witness at the ongoing trial of Mr Peters and his firm at the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja.

Testifying as the second prosecution witness, Mr Bawa said EFCC started recovering funds from the defendants following Mr Peter’s admission in a written statement that “he is willing to pay back the excess money he obtained from the government”.

EFCC’s spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, gave the account of the proceedings in a statement on Monday.

Under cross-examination by the defence lawyer, E.O Isiramen, Mr Bawa further stressed, “Our findings and evidence are still that you cannot discharge what you didn’t import.

“And our investigation, including documents from the banks, Staco Insurance Plc, PPPRA and others, indicated that the defendant supplied about 6,000 MT of PMS and not 12,000 MT as claimed by the defendant.”

The EFCC boss also said an investigation by the commission revealed that those who signed the respective documents resulting in the eventual payment to the defendants “did not do the right thing from our findings.”

“However, we were looking at the bigger picture in the interest of justice and concluded that the defendant was the beneficiary of the alleged compromise,” he added.

He further told the court that “We have started making recoveries from the defendant and we have a statement in which he put in writing that he is willing to pay back the excess money he received from the government.”

Mr Bawa also restated that other directors of the company told the EFCC, during investigations, that they didn’t know anything about the transaction.

He said: “He never denied that he was in charge of everything that has to do with the transaction.

“We were only doing our job and we found out that the entire fund was utilised by him.”