Bawa Moves to Conclude Tinubu Probe Abandoned by Magu
Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa reopened the probe into former Lagos State governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s finances, reports have revealed.
Nigerian Sketch learnt that the new EFCC chairman has written a letter to the Code of Conduct Bureau, requesting copies of Tinubu’s asset declaration form, following an investigation which began last year after the removal of erstwhile Acting chairman of the commission, Ibrahim Magu.
There were allegations that Magu deliberately refused to act on a number of petitions written against Tinubu since 2018.
A letter written by Bawa on November 6, 2020 to the Code of Conduct Bureau when he was EFCC zonal head in Lagos requesting a probe has been in circulation of recent, and sources said Bawa was bent on ensuring that actions were taken to investigate all allegations on Tinubu.
The letter, which was marked CR/3000/EFCC/LS/Vol4/322, read in part, “In view of the above, you are kindly requested to furnish the commission with the outstanding requested information of Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu.
“This request is made pursuant to Section 38(1) and (2) of the EFCC Act 2004.”
The letter was sequel to several petitions against Tinubu, including one involving alleged fraud in Alpha Beta Consulting.”
Recall that a former Managing Director of Alpha Beta Consulting, Mr. Dapo Apara, had written petitions to the EFCC, accusing the firm of tax evasion and being run by Tinubu albeit by proxy.
Apara had also instituted a lawsuit against Tinubu.
In his statement of claim, he stated that Tinubu controlled the company which was receiving 10 per cent of the taxes collected on behalf of the state.
The former MD said as the head of the company, he began looking into its finances and he made many startling discoveries such as mysterious transfers of over N20bn to various companies.
He stated, “N550m payment to Ocean Trust Ltd vide payment instruction dated the 15/5/18, N850m payment to Ocean Trust Ltd vide payment instruction dated the 14/3/15.”
The claimant said N960m was spent on purchasing HITV’s 300,000,000 shares.
