Politics
EFCC seizes shopping malls owned by former Rivers REC
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has seized two shopping malls allegedly belonging to a Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Geshila Khan.
Khan, who was the REC incharge of Rivers State during the 2015 general elections, allegedly acquired the shopping malls with her share of the election bribe money said to have been given out by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
The anti-corruption agency also froze an account belonging to Khan where N49 million was discovered.
It would be recalled that the former Rivers State REC has been in the eye of the storm lately with allegations that she got more than N185 million from the N23.29b poll bribe money allegedly cordinated by Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke.
According to a source at the EFCC, the agency approached a Federal High Court, Yenagoa for an Interim Forfeiture Order to take over the account and the buildings located in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.
Read also: Jibrin confesses to being part of House sleaze, got N650m
The source said: “We have been able to trace two choice shopping malls in Yenagoa to the affected REC Khan. Following the development, we applied to a Federal High Court for Interim Forfeiture Order in line with sections 26 and 29 of the EFCC Act.
“The court has granted our prayers to seize the two malls and appoint managers to take care of the properties in order to generate more revenue either for the government or the owner depending on how the trial ends.
“We do not want the assets to lie fallow hence we recruited managers to be in charge until investigation and trial are concluded.
“During investigation, we discovered N49million in the account of REC Khan. Since she could not fully account for the sources of the money, we have frozen the account in line with our mandate.
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