EFCC STORMS BUA, DANGOTE LAGOS OFFICES AS FOREX PROBE INTENSIFIES

Men of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, laid a siege on the office of BUA Group, located at PC 32, Churchgate Street, Victoria Island, Lagos State.

According to reports, operatives of the anti-graft agency stormed the office in search of documents related to the probe into foreign exchange allocations to individuals and companies during the regime of the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.

EFCC operatives had made a similar visit to the headquarters of BUA’s main competitor, Dangote Group, also in Lagos.

This reporter gathered that the search operations on both companies commenced around 3 pm on Thursday, January 4, 2023, and were still ongoing as of the time of this report.

The EFCC had reportedly written to 52 companies, including BUA Plc and Dangote Plc, instructing them to supply documents supporting the allocation and utilisation of foreign currencies to them in the last decade.

The anti-graft agency is also investigating alleged preferential forex allocations to individuals and organisations by the CBN during Emefiele’s regime.

An EFCC source told newsmen, “Our operatives are currently at BUA’s office in Lagos Island. The commission (EFCC) is also investigating BUA Plc for the same reason as Dangote Plc, over the preferential foreign exchange allocations made by the former CBN Governor, Emefiele in defiance of extant financial rules and regulations and in disregard to the CBN Act.

“There are about 51 other big companies under probe over the development too; and the commission discovered that the allocations were not approved by the former President Muhammadu Buhari.”

The spokesperson for the EFCC, Dele Oyewale, who confirmed the presence of operatives of the anti-graft agency at both locations, refused to disclose the reason for their presence.

“Yes, our operatives were at BUA office in Lagos too as they were at Dangote’s, but I can’t comment on the reason for their presence there”