The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa, has dismissed media reports linking a serving female Minister in the Buhari administration to a $37.5 million property in the country.
The EFCC boss had on June 15 during an interview with Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, revealed that the commission investigated a female Minister who bought $37.5 million property from a bank and deposited $20 million.
However, Bawa, during the weekly briefing organised by the Presidential Communication Team in Abuja on Thursday, clarified that he was not referring to a serving Minister in his narration of how a Minister purchased a property via a Bank Manager.
The EFCC Chairman was reacting to a question on why no Minister had resigned or a Bank Manager being prosecuted over the matter, saying he only made reference to the case of a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, and not a serving minister as wrongly reported.
Bawa said: “We investigated a matter in which a Bank Managing Director marketed a property to a Minister and agreed to purchase it at $37.5 million.
“The bank then sent a vehicle to her house to evacuate $20 million from her house in the first instance.”
He had also identified the real estate sector as a major conduit for money laundering in the country.
According to him, 90 per cent to 100 per cent of stolen public funds are used for the procurement of landed properties in the country and abroad.
