The chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa, said yesterday that the commission investigated a female minister who allegedly bought $37.5 million property from a bank and deposited $20 million cash.
This is coming as the All Progressive Congress Party (APC) under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari has continued to insist that they are fighting corruption in Nigeria. Speaking on a Channels Television programme ‘Politics Today’ Bawa described the real estate sector as “one with grand scale corruption in the country adding that about 90 to 100 per cent of resources are being laundered through the sector.
Bawa who did not disclose the identity of the minister said: “One of the problems we have in the country is the real estate. Ninety to 100 per cent of the resources are being laundered through the real estate. Of course, they are being regulated but they are not enough in terms of how they give their returns to the Special Control Unit.
“We investigated a matter in which a bank managing director marketed a property to a minister and agreed to purchase it at $37.5 million. The bank then sent a vehicle to her house to evacuate $20 million from her house in the first instance. The bank succeeded to put it in their system and paid the developer and then a lawyer set up a special purpose vehicle where the title documents were transferred into and of course, he is posing as the owner of the house.
“Without the help of the banker, the minister couldn’t have imagined collecting $20 million from anyone with opportunity from the real sector; she could not have thought of where to launder the proceeds of crime.”
