EFCC summons Dangote officials to Abuja over forex scandal probe

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has reportedly summoned some officials of the Dangote Group to Abuja to come along with detailed documents on foreign exchange transactions by the conglomerate covering the last nine years.

Ripples Nigeria reports that operatives of the EFCC, on Thursday, stormed the headquarters of Dangote Industries Limited in Ikoyi, Lagos, in furtherance of the ongoing investigation into the alleged abuse of the foreign exchange allocations by the immediate past Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.

The anti-graft commission is probing the alleged preferential allocations of forex to the Dangote Group owned by billionaire Aliko Dangote and 51 other companies by the Emefiele-led CBN.

According to reports, operatives of the EFCC carted away some documents from the group’s head office on Thursday, but they did not cover all the transactions, hence the decision to summon the officials to bring the documents to Abuja on Tuesday.

According to a report by The Punch, a highly placed EFCC official, who confirmed the summon to Abuja, said senior executives of the company had been mandated to supply the commission with what he called “detailed and unambiguous documents on the demands by the commission.”

The source also added that the officials would be expected at the agency’s office on Tuesday.

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“Yes, they (Dangote officials) asked for time to enable them to get all the necessary documents, which was granted. The idea is not to be seen to be witch-hunting anyone. What the commission wants is to get evidence and details of how government funds were allocated and that is all,” the EFCC official said.

The report also quoted an official of the Dangote Group, who confirmed that some key personnel of the conglomerate were currently gathering the documents requested by the EFCC to clear the company of any wrongdoing.

The source noted that the firm had sent some documents and key members of staff to the EFCC headquarters in Abuja in respect to the ongoing investigation, adding that it was shocked that the anti-graft agency still stormed its Lagos office on Thursday.

The Dangote official stated: “Yes, we were aware of the ongoing investigation by the EFCC and our people were at the headquarters in Abuja with some of the requested documents as of the time its operatives invaded our Lagos office in what I will describe as a show-off.

“We are a law-abiding group, but it is difficult to get all the documents covering the tenure of Emefiele at once, but our people are working at night to get all the relevant documents, which will be sent to the anti-graft agency next week.”

The source said further: “As of the time of the raid, our people were in Abuja. We have been sleeping in the office to make sure that we get all the documents the EFCC requires for the investigation.

“We are talking about documents from 2014 to June 2023. It is a lot of documents and it will take time to get all of them readily available. We have, however, sent the ones we have at our immediate disposal and they are with the commission.

“The raid was just a way of embarrassing us and an act of show-off. We are law-abiding people running a legitimate business and we are cooperating with the investigation.”

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