EFCC storms Dangote head office

AS part of its ongoing investigations into foreign exchange allocations to some companies in the country, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from its Lagos zonal command were at the corporate headquarters of the Dangote Group in Lagos, on Thursday.

The operatives, who visited the office on Thursday to conduct search on the company, were said to have requested for documents relating to allocation of forex to the company by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) between 2015 and June 2023 when Godwin Emefiele was governor of the apex bank.

Until the inception of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, Nigeria was operating multiple foreign exchange rates policy through which big companies got their supplies in official rates.

EFCC’s investigation of the big companies that got forex allocations at official rates, it was learnt, was a  direct fallout from the investigation of activities of CBN under Emefiele by a special  investigator, Jim Obazee.

Obazee, a former Chief Executive Officer (CEO), of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN), was appointed by President Tinubu in July, 2023 to investigate the CBN under Emefiele and other related entities as part of the new administration’s anti-corruption engagement.

The special investigator was charged with the responsibility of taking immediate steps to ensure strengthening of key Government Business Entities (GBEs) and block leakages in both CBN and related GBEs.

He was further directed to provide a comprehensive report on public wealth currently in the hands of corrupt individuals and establishments, both private and public.

In his report submitted to the President on December 9, 2023, the special investigator indicted Emefiele on many fronts, alleging that the embattled former CBN chief manipulated foreign exchange rates during his tenure.

Though EFCC’s Head, Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale, did not speak on the matter as of the time of filing this report, a source in the commission confirmed the raid.

The source said that the ‘search’ was part of the ongoing investigation and informed that more than 40  companies were involved in the investigation. The commission is investigating forex allocations to some companies, over 40 of them, including some big ones, one of which is Dangote Group, which operatives visited today (Thursday). Most of the companies, including Dangote Group have denied wrongdoings in their exchanges with the EFCC, stating they were willing to explain their forex transactions.

“The companies involved had been asked to make available to the commission details of their forex deals since 2015 till June under the watch of former CBN governor, Emefiele,” the source told the Nigerian Tribune.

While not providing further details about the raid on the Dangote Group office, the source said documents relating to forex allocations were requested by the operatives and provided by officials of the company to the operatives.