• We’ve recovered N2.3bn from ex-military chief —Magu THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other security agencies are now on the trail of more than 300 companies and individuals, to whom contracts were awarded by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) between 2011 and 2015. The companies and individuals were indicted by a presidential committee which discovered that there was total disregard for salient provisions of the Public Procurement Act in the award of contracts by the ONSA to them. A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media and Publicity), Garba Shehu, had claimed that over N7billion had been recovered so far from the indicted companies and individuals. Presidential spokesman, Mr Femi Adesina, on Friday, in a chat with our reporter, gave the indication that the report of the committee had been sent to the anti-graft agency for action. “Usually when we issue a statement like that, EFCC follows it up,” Adesina said. Also, Garba Shehu elaborated further as he told Saturday Tribune that in addition to the EFCC, the police and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) had taken over the recovery of the various sums from the indicted contractors and prosecution of culprits. According to the earlier statement by Shehu, another N41 billion is to be refunded by the indicted companies, while the EFCC had been ordered to carry out further investigation to determine whether another N75 billion should be recovered from some of the companies for unexecuted or partially executed contracts. EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Magu, on Thursday evening, in Lagos, also said that in less than three weeks, the agency recovered N2.3billion from one of the former military chiefs who are being investigated for misappropriating public funds. Magu had revealed the recovery of the N2.3 billion from the former military chief in Lagos, on Thursday during the Institute of Directors, Nigeria’s Members’ Evening. He said some judges were also under investigation following the link between their accounts and those of some lawyers who are facing prosecution by the EFCC. Magu, who was represented by the Deputy Director of Operations of the agency, Illiyasu Kwarbai, however, disclosed that the effectiveness of the agency depends on the leadership of the country. The EFCC boss said that as of Thursday evening, the agency had recovered about N3billion from the former military chief. “Let me tell you that in less than three weeks, we recovered N2.3billion from a former military chief and we hope to recover more,” Magu said. He also said that the agency had uncovered a financial transaction between some of the lawyers who are facing corruption charges and some judges in the country. “In the course of our investigations on some lawyers, we uncovered movements of monies from their accounts to those of the judges. We will invite them for interrogation soon. We are investigating them. “We are dependent and we are independent. We depend on the government for funds but we are independent in our investigations. Nobody tells us who to investigate,” he added. Magu decried the activities of “unpatriotic lawyers” whom he blamed for bad presentation and representation in some of their cases. “We have in-house lawyers and we have many of them from outside. A large number of the lawyers from outside are not patriotic We want to review this situation,” the EFCC boss said.]]>