Presidential panel recovers $7m illegally kept in Heritage Bank

The panel set up for the recovery of public property, Special Presidential Investigation panel, says it has recovered about $7m illegally kept in Heritage Bank.

While giving accounts of the panel activities,  Okoi Obono-Obla, chairman of the panel, said the panel had also recovered N533 million and land worth N1.5 billion, all from the “previous management” of NEXIM Bank.

He said the recovered funds and property had since been returned to the bank.

Obono-Obla said the panel had also recovered and returned to the National Theatre, N24 million which was allegedly diverted by some directors of the agency.

Also recovered, he said, were two hectares of land in Abuja valued at over N2 billion, belonging to the National Council of Arts and Culture.

The chairman said the panel also recovered and returned a part of Agura Hotel belonging to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).

He said the recovered part of the hotel had been illegally “annexed by some so-called powerful persons with untouchable connections for over 20 years”.

Other recoveries by the SPIP, according to Obono-Obla, are 19 official sports utility vehicles allegedly made away with by former commissioners of the National Population Commission (NPC) after their tenures in office.

He said the panel had charged a former director in the federal ministry of power, works and housing to court for failure to declare his assets.

The assets include houses in upscale areas of Abuja, a quarry and a farm within the federal capital territory, for which a court has granted an interim forfeiture order, he said.

“The SPIP is also investigating some members of the national assembly and former governors for a range of alleged offences,” Obono-Obla said in the briefing.

“These include illegal purchase of designated official residences for principal officers of the national assembly excluded from the monetisation policy at giveaway prices.

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“Others are purchase of several property worth hundreds of millions in various currencies, and flagrant abuse of office thus causing financial adversity to the nation.”

He said the SPIP was partnering with the UK’s home secretary to ensure that some public officers “perceived to have looted public funds and illegally acquired assets both in Nigeria and the UK’’ were prevented from entering that country.

The SPIP chairman equally told Buhari that the panel was beaming its searchlight on several companies for a wide range of alleged offences.

Some of the companies, he said, are Celtel, for alleged tax evasion since 2005; Western Oil and Gas, for illegally drilling crude oil in Delta, and seven others for alleged failure to pay royalties to the federal government in about 10 years.

He said some multinational oil companies based in Egi Kingdom, Rivers, were also being investigated for allegedly conniving with unscrupulous individuals to dodge their obligations to the community to the tune of N38 billion and $30 million.

“Also under investigation by the panel is another company, which has failed to to fulfill its contractual agreement to dredge the Calabar Channel, years after receiving $12 million,” he said in the briefing

“The panel has also compiled a list of over 200 past and serving public officers perceived to have illegally enriched themselves at the expense of the nation and the Nigerian people, among others.”