The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is enmeshed in another internal scandal as an officer in charge of Kaduna Zonal Office’s exhibit room allegedly absconded with over $30,000 and other valuable exhibits.
Earlier in January, the country’s flagship anti-corruption agency said it had detained 10 officers in Lagos over theft of operational items they could not account for.
Although the commission did not disclose the specific items stolen by the officials, it was revealed that they stole gold bars worth over N1billion as well as over $180,000 and about GBP140,000.
In the latest scandal, it was reliably gathered that a member of staff of the commission, simply identified as Polycarp, vanished when he failed to account for “over $30,000”.
Insiders who preferred anonymity said that the zonal director, Benedict Ubi, a couple of weeks ago ordered for an audit of the directorate’s exhibit room, following the internal heist that occurred in Lagos.
According to the sources, when Polycarp received the directive that the exhibit room would be audited, he took an excuse to ease himself and fled.
“Immediately after the order for the audit was given, he took an excuse to ease himself. Efforts were made to contact him but all his telephone lines were switched off.
“This is only what the preliminary audit on foreign currency shows. There are chances that more could be uncovered after a thorough audit of the exhibit room,” said a source familiar with the development.
It was learnt that the commission had launched a manhunt to trace the fleeing officer’s whereabouts.
In 2019, an official of the commission was indicted for receiving $20,000 as bribe from a business man at Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos State.
Despite his confession to the crime, he was reinstated by the then acting chairman of the commission, Ibrahim Magu.
The matter was not made public.
In 2021, the anti-graft agency dismissed an officer in a leaked audio in which he was heard helping suspects on how their accounts could be unfrozen and charges dropped against them.
The then spokesman for EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, described the officer as “a corrupt fifth columnist with scant regard for the values of the commission,” adding that his action was contemptuous of the Standard Operating Procedure of the EFCC.
“Without prejudice to the outcome of the investigation, snippets of the audio recording clearly showed an abysmally compromised ‘officer’ dropping names to ingratiate his benefactor, a relative of a crime suspect.
“By the alleged action, the said officer is no more than a corrupt fifth columnist with scant regard for the values of the commission.”
On January 6, the commission announced the dismissal of 27 officers from its workforce for various offences bordering on fraudulent activities and misconduct.
Although the anti-graft agency made it appear recent, credible sources however said it was the total number of members of staff sacked for fraud since the establishment of EFCC in 2003.
