*My life under threat he said
By Myke Uzendu
The Chairman of the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, Wednesday confirmed that a female serving minister in the President Muhammadu Buhari administration purchased a $37.5 million property from a bank, depositing $20m cash.
Though Bawa did not identity the suspect, sources said the suspect is currently serving under President Buhari and very flamboyant and suspicious in vertually all her activities.
Speaking while featuring on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, the anti-graft agency boss said resources are being laundered so much through the real estate sector.
He described the sector as one with grand-scale corruption in the country.
According to him: “One of the problems we have in the country is the real estate. Ninety to 100 per cent of the resources are being laundered through the real estate.
“Of course, they are being regulated but they are not enough in terms of how they give their returns to the Special Control Unit.
“We investigated a matter in which a bank Managing-Director (MD) marketed a property to a minister who agreed to purchase it at $37.5m.
“The bank then sent a vehicle to her house to evacuate $20m from her house in the first instance.
“The bank succeeded to put it in their system and paid the developer and then a lawyer set up a special purpose vehicle where the title documents were transferred into and of course, he is posing as the owner of the house.
“Without the help of the banker, the minister couldn’t have imagined collecting $20m from anyone with opportunity from the real sector; she could not have thought of where to launder the proceeds of the crime.”
Bawa also spoke of how unnamed powerful Nigerians have been threatening his life, saying such are the challenges posed by the job he was offered.
