The new Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa, has been summoned by the House of Representatives on circumstances surrounding him transferring forfeited assets to the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation.
He is expected to appear before the ad hoc committee of the House set up to compile and review projects and fixed assets belonging to the Federal Government across Nigeria.
Other people invited are the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN); and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mohammed Bello.
Speaking on the invitation, the Chairman of the committee, Ademorin Kuye, said the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice and Solicitor-General of the Federation are expected to appear before the House on Thursday.
Though, the EFCC acting Director of Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Management, Mr Aliyu Yusuf, had appeared before the committee but information provided to the committee was not impressive to them.
Fielding questions from the lawmakers, Yusuf, said “The EFCC has not really undertaken any serious disposal of assets. The only asset that was disposed of was the trucks, which were seized in Port Harcourt (Rivers State capital).
“All the finally forfeited assets – real estate – were all intact until this new regulation came into effect, which was made by the Honourable Attorney-General that requires us to transfer all forfeited assets to the Office of the AGF for management. That regulation was made in October 2019 and we have complied with that; we have forwarded the lists and court orders for all finally forfeited assets to the Office of the AGF for management.”
However, Kuye criticized the regulation introduced by Malami, saying it breached Section 31 of the EFCC Act, particularly Sub-sections 1 and 4.
Chairman of the committee, while expressing his dissatisfaction with the development decried that the assets were losing value.
The House had on March 17, 2020, constituted the committee with the mandate to investigate the status, use and current state of all Federal Government properties in all parts of the country.