EFCC Recovers More Exotic Items From Ex-Customs Boss, Dikko

EFCC Recovers More Exotic Items From Ex-Customs Boss, Dikko

Less than a week after 17 exotic vehicles were recovered from a former Customs boss, dozens of brand new tricycles and motorcycles have also been recovered from a property belonging to him

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said on Wednesday that it raided the warehouse of Abdullahi Dikko, the former Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, where it made the new recoveries.

“Operatives of the Commission’s Kaduna Zonal office acting on intelligence stormed the facility on Tuesday February 28 and executed a search warrant which led to the recovery of the following items,” the EFCC said in a statement by its spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren.

The commission listed the newly recovered items to include: 42 brand new customized yellow-coloured tricycles; 16 brand new cargo motorcycles; one brand new white 32-seater Nissan civilian bus; one MAN diesel truck;  515 brand new imported rugs of different colours and sizes; two metal bullet proof safe with the sum of N 1,565 and documents of transactions in different currencies within and outside the country.

The anti-graft commission had last week Wednesday announced the recovery of 17 “exotic vehicles” from Mr. Dikko who retired as Customs boss in 2015.

Two days later, Justice S. M. Shuaibu of the Federal High Court in Kaduna gave an interim order, forfeiting the 17 vehicles to the federal government.

Recovered properties from a former Customs boss, Abdullahi Dikko

Mr. Dikko, who headed the Customs between August 2009 and August 2015, was earlier arrested by the EFCC in June 2015 over alleged diversion of N40 billion from the agency’s coffers. The EFCC in November 2016, confirmed he had returned N1 billion of the allegedly stolen funds to the federal government.

The former Customs chief is not currently in Nigeria, an EFCC source said.

“But his arraignment will begin when he returns from the medical trip abroad,” the source said.

Bappa Ibrahim, the Zonal Head of the EFCC who addressed journalists in Kaduna, said, the operation that led to the recovery was part of the continuation of the EFCC’s investigation on the former Customs boss.
He said the recovery was made based on intelligence gathering and tip-off.

Mr. Ibrahim called on the public to always assist the anti-graft agency with useful information, noting that the war on anti-corruption must not be left to the EFCC.