Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chair Farida Waziri threatened to arrest debtors given questionable loans from five major banks in the oil-producing West African state. The government sacked five bank CEOs on August 14, 2009.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
By Kingsley Nwezeh
Nigeria ThisDay
11 Feb 2011
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Thursday arrested former Minister of Works, Hassan Lawal, over an alleged N50 billion fraud.
The anti-graft agency has also launched a manhunt for the cronies of the former minister who are believed to be on the run. It vowed to track them down.
Lawal, who also served as Minister of Labour under President Olusegun Obasanjo, was picked up by operatives of the agency over “high degrees of massive fraud”.
Other charges dangling on the former minister's neck include abuse of office, abuse of government laid down policy on due process and award of contracts to unregistered companies amounting to N50 billion.
While Hassan remains in custody, the agency said it had commenced a manhunt of his cronies who were involved in the fraud.
Spokesman of the commission, Femi Babafemi, confirmed the arrest but declined to give details.
No comments:
Post a Comment