EFCC raids Astrax Autos, seizes 29 cars

The raid followed intelligence report received by the commission on the activities of the operators of the auto shop, who are said to be a syndicate of organized Internet fraudsters. A statement by the Acting Head, Media and Publicity, Mr. Tony Orilade said a member of the suspected syndicate, Olusegun Micheal Adeyemi has been arrested. The statement said: “Investigation revealed that the syndicate, which specializes in Business Emails Compromise, BEC, in the United States of America, USA, usually moves proceeds of its alleged illicit business to a nominated bank account owned by their mules in the U.S. “The syndicate members allegedly launder the proceeds through money order, which they use to purchase cars in American auctions and ship same to Nigeria for sale. “The EFCC had earlier arrested one of the syndicate members, Olusegun Micheal Adeyemi. “In his statement to the EFCC, Adeyemi confirmed one Tayo Onilogbo Yusuf as the Managing Director of Astrax Autos and Automobile. “The cars recovered from the syndicate include: four Toyota Corolla; seven Toyota Camry; two Toyota Highlander; two Toyota Venza; two Range Rover; one Ford SUV; three Mercedes Benz; one Toyota 4runner; one Toyota Sienna; four Honda Accord; one Toyota Sequoia and one Kia car.” Meanwhile, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption, Sen. Chukwuka Utazi has commended the efforts of the EFCC in the fight against corruption. Utazi asked the anti-graft agency to redouble its effort to save Nigeria from corruption cankerworm. Utazi made the commendation during the committee’s oversight function to the commission. He said “we will amend the EFCC Act to ensure that certain percentage of your recoveries will be retained to improve on the quality of the Commission’s assignments. “It is not a good thing for the EFCC to be going cap in hand begging for money to do their job. This practice is disadvantaged to your operations. “When we succeed in amending the Act, we will take a step further to amend the Constitution to ensure that the Commission is on First Line Charge”. He said it was regretful that seven months after moving into the new Jabi Headquarters building, the offices were still not furnished. He added: “To hear from you that only 10 percent of the budgetary allocation for the furnishing of the new office has been released is to say the least, unacceptable. “It is only when people operate in the right environment that they can do their job perfectly. We are not only going to make your men comfortable in the Abuja office, we shall do our best to extend this gesture to all the offices across the country”. Regarding the delay in the disposal of assets finally forfeited to the federal government, Utazi said: “You should intensify efforts in the disposal of the assets and where there is any hitch, the Committee should be contacted immediately. “The revenue that would be derivable from the disposals of such assets would go along way in inflating the economy”. Earlier in his opening remarks, the EFCC Acting Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Magu gave the details of final monetary forfeiture in the last 11 months. They include: N12, 747, 521, 465. 01 (Twelve Billion, Seven Hundred and Forty Seven Million, Five Hundred and Twenty One Thousand , Four Hundred and Sixty Five Naira and One Kobo) ; $175, 077.81 (One Hundred and Seventy Five Thousand Dollars and Eighty One Cent) and 597, 353.65 Pounds (Five Hundred and Ninety Seven Thousand, Three Hundred and Fifty Three Pounds and Sixty Five Pence). He said the commission recorded unprecedented over 240 convictions between January till date, gave record of summary of final forfeited assets. The assets are 116 automobiles, 5 Bank Accounts, 15 land, 21 Real Estate and Equipment/Machinery. ” Assets forfeited under interim are: 25 automobiles, 39 bank Accounts, four filling Stations, 47 Real Estates, two vessels, uncalibrated quantities of petroleum product, One Tugboat, One Hotel, One barge and Four Shops. Magu, however, lamented that out of the N12. 717billion appropriated for the commission’s personnel cost for the fiscal year, only N6.739 billion( representing 53.06 per cent )has been released. Similarly, he said the sum of N3.6 billion was appropriated for Overhead. He said out if the overhead, only N1. 650 billion representing 45.83 percent has been released. On capital budget, he said out of the N10.074 billion appropriated for capital expenditure in 2018 financial year, only N1. 007 billion, representing 10 percent of total appropriation has been released.]]>