As operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission move to unveil the beneficiaries of the N3.1bn
withdrawn from the account of the National Security
Adviser in the CBN for political campaign, one of the
recipients of the cash bonanza has slipped out of the
country.
Sources at the anti-graft agency said the former minister,
who hails from one of the South-East states, sneaked out
of Nigeria just before the EFCC blew the lid on the huge
cash withdrawal.
The former minister, who is believed to have collected as
much as N350million of the cash
left for a European nation just before the information on the
six key Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, chieftains, who
drew the cash was made open by the anti-graft agency last
week.
But a source close to the former minister defended her,
claiming that she left the country two weeks ago for the
foreign country without prejudice to the cash or
investigation by the EFCC.
“Madam has, however, been informed of the amount of
money she is said to have received from the ONSA for
political campaign but she is not in Nigeria as we speak.
“The woman has been informed of what the anti-graft
agency has said about her but we don’t know when she will
return to Nigeria,” a close aide of the former minister said
yesterday.
Of the N3.1 billion cash withdrawn from the CBN on the
instruction of the embattled former NSA, a former minister
collected N840 million, leaving the balance to be shared by
five other party chieftains.
Last Sunday, another former female minister who
reportedly provided the account into which the cash was
paid and actually disbursed the money, sneaked out of
Nigeria and is yet to return.
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