Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a Thursday, January 4, visited the Lagos head office of the Dangote Group, TheCable is reporting.
They stormed the company to conduct a search on forex allocations to the company during the tenure of Godwin Emefiele as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
However, a Dangote employee confirmed to TheCable that the operatives are at the head office. “They asked for documents on forex transactions with the CBN,” the employee said.
Premium Times reports that on arrival at the headquarters of one of Africa’s largest conglomerates in Lagos, the EFCC operatives demanded documents relating to allocation of foreign exchange to the group in the last ten years.
They then scrutinised the documents provided by officials of the Group for hours,
carting some of them away. Premium Times learnt that the EFCC had written to 52 companies directing them to supply documents supporting the allocation and utilization of foreign currencies to them in the last 10 years.
The EFCC letter to the companies is part of ongoing investigation into alleged preferential Forex allocations to individuals and organisation by the Godwin Emefiele-led Central Bank of Nigeria.
Investigators have in the past months accused the CBN of favouring and enriching some individuals and companies through non-transparent allocation of foreign exchange to them. Premium Times had reported in December how the forensic audit of the CBN under Mr Emefiele uncovered 593 bank accounts domiciled in the United States, the United Kingdom and China in which Nigerian funds were deposited without authorisation from the board and investment committee of the apex bank.