EFCC Traces 17 Choice Properties to Arrested Accountant General

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has linked at least 17 properties to the Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris.

This comes as the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, suspended Idris, who is now being probed for N80 billion fraud.

According to an EFCC official who requested anonymity, the properties linked to Idris are located in Kano, Lagos, Abuja, Dubai, and London.

However, he stated that investigations revealed that the country’s top accountant reportedly utilized proxies to purchase some of these assets. As a result, the commission would need to invite some of the proxies.

According to the official, these properties were bought while Idris was in office and were not declared to the Code of Conduct Bureau as required by law.

He added, “About 17 houses in London, Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Dubai have been traced to him. In Abuja, some of the houses are located in serviced estates.”

The EFCC had in a statement on Monday announced the arrest of the accountant-general for fraud to the tune of N80bn.

The statement read in part, “The commission’s verified intelligence showed that the AGF raked off the funds through bogus consultancies and other illegal activities using proxies, family members and close associates. The funds were laundered through real estate investments in Kano and Abuja.”

It was learnt that Idris came under scrutiny last year following allegations that he offered huge sums of money to a family in order to secure the marriage of their 16-year-old daughter.

The uncle of the teenager, Nura Bagudu, had told the press in an interview that the accountant-general offered properties and gifts to the young lady and her family and had lodged complaints to the Federal Government.

“He told the young lady to go to Abuja and choose any house she wanted and he would buy it for her,” Bagudu had told the press.

Source: punchng.com