Court, bureaucracy stalling auction of N14bn jewellery, other assets seized from Diezani, says Bawa

hairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, has told the House of Representatives that his Commission seized jewellery worth N14 billion from former Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Allison-Madueke.

Mr Bawa, made the assertion before an ad hoc committee of the House investigating the assessment and status of recovered loot on Friday in Abuja.

He also said that the houses seized from the former minister are also valued at $80 million.

The anti graft agency chairman said that Ms Allison-Madueke’s jewellery are still in the custody of the agency, adding that it had not been auctioned but had been finally forfeited to the federal government.

He said that court processes, procedures and administrative exigencies had stalled some of the seized assets to be auctioned by the anti graft agency.

Mr Bawa however said that the agency would henceforth deal with the seized assets case by case at the courts in order to quickly dispose of the assets.

“Already the Federal Government has set up a committee under the chairmanship of the Solicitor-General for the Federation and I think they are working tirelessly,” Mr Bawa announced noting that the committee is to ensure that assets that are not only recovered by the EFCC but are properly disposed of.

“We have EFCC representatives on that committee and we believe at the end of the day Nigerians are going to appreciate what that committee will come out with in terms of the mandate given to them,” he said.

Asked when the committee would wind up so the assets could be disposed of, Mr Bawa said that he was not a member of the committee to know how soon the assets were going to be disposed of.

Mr Bawa himself had, during his time as Zonal Head of the anti-graft agency in Port Harcourt, been subject to arrest and investigation for his untidy involvement in the disposal of confiscated assets.

At least 244 seized fuel tankers worth between N20 Million to 30 Million each were sold off to cronies at N100,000 or slightly above.

He was nonetheless tapped to head the country’s foremost anti-corruption agency by President Muhammadu Buhari months after amid murmurings by some anti-corruption crusaders.

Mr Bawa said that in its quest to transform the agency, it would soon digitalise its processes, adding that it had also created and upgraded four additional departments to restore confidence.

He listed the departments to include: Intelligence, procurement, Internal Affairs and the Information Communication Technology Department.

He said that there was no loot that had been re looted as has been speculated, stressing that going forward, the EFCC would be different and Nigerians would be the better for it.

He said that he would always honour the National Assembly to account for what the agency had done, adding that public servants come and go but the institution would remain.