The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has made it clear that their N7.1 billion fraud case against Senate Chief Whip Orji Uzor Kalu is still going on.
Goldennewsng reports that the Director of the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa uncovered this during the week after week Ecclesiastical Preparation by the Official Correspondence Group at the Official Manor, Abuja.
In addition, Bawa stated that the Commission had recovered more than N30 billion from the suspended Accountant-General of the Federation, Idris Ahmed, describing the anti-corruption agency’s operations and accomplishments thus far under his leadership.
Kalu had argued that a Supreme Court decision that ordered a retrial of the fraud case did not include him as a party in the retrial and had sought an order from the Abuja Federal High Court to prevent the EFCC from retrying him.
The court accepted Kalu’s plea and ordered the anti-graft agency to keep him out of the retrial of a case for which he had already been found guilty.
However, in response to a question at the briefing, Bawa stated that the EFCC was still investigating the former governor of Aboa and that he had not been released or cleared.
“This is where my friend inquired about Senator Orji Uzor Kalu. He was found guilty by the court after the prosecution lasted about 12 years. He went to the Supreme Court, which said that he should be tried again in Lagos because he had been elevated to the Court of Appeal and could not go back to the lower court.
“As a result, we wanted to arraign him almost immediately in Lagos so that the prosecution could begin all over again. After that, he went to court to argue that he had been discharged and acquitted, but no one had. We are still pursuing the matters in court here in Abuja. So the matter is as yet progressing,” he insisted..
He affirmed that at the very least N30 billion has been recovered from the suspended AGF, Ahmed.
He is being prosecuted by the Commission for an alleged N109 billion fraud.
He listed other recoveries, including N134,33,759,574.25, $121,769,076.30, £21,020.00, €156,925.00, 21,350.00, and CFA300,000.00, as examples of the anti-graft body’s accomplishments from January to December 2022.
Additionally, he disclosed that over 3,615 convictions were recorded during the period, demonstrating that the administration takes its anti-corruption program seriously.
The head of the EFCC said that over 150 houses will be sold to interested buyers after the nationwide auction of forfeited automobiles.
Bawa promised that money laundering in the country would be difficult by the time the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering (SCMUL) becomes fully operational.
