EFCC Officer absconds with $30,000 from exhibit room in Kaduna

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is embroiled in another internal scandal as a staff member at the Kaduna Zonal Office allegedly fled with over $30,000 and other valuables from the exhibit room.

According to sources, the officer, identified as Polycarp, disappeared after the zonal director, Benedict Ubi, ordered an audit of the exhibit room. Polycarp reportedly requested to excuse himself during the audit process but never returned.

This incident comes on the heels of a similar scandal in January, where the EFCC detained 10 officers in Lagos for stealing operational items, including gold bars valued at over ₦1 billion, $180,000, and £140,000.

Insiders revealed that the audit was initiated to ensure accountability after the Lagos theft.

“Immediately after the order for the audit was given, he took an excuse to ease himself. Efforts were made to contact him but all his telephone lines were switched off.

“This is only what the preliminary audit on foreign currency shows. There are chances that more could be uncovered after a thorough audit of the exhibit room,” said a source familiar with the development.

This newspaper learnt that the commission had launched a manhunt to trace the fleeing officer’s whereabouts.

In 2019, an official of the commission was indicted for receiving $20,000 as bribe from a business man at Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos state.

Despite his confession to the crime, he was reinstated by the then acting chairman of the commission, Ibrahim Magu. The matter was not made public.

In 2021, the anti-graft agency dismissed an officer after DAILY NIGERIAN published a leaked audio in which he was heard helping suspects on how their accounts could be unfrozen and charges dropped against them.

The then spokesman for EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, described the officer as “a corrupt fifth columnist with scant regard for the values of the commission,” adding that his action was contemptuous of the Standard Operating Procedure of the EFCC.

“Without prejudice to the outcome of the investigation, snippets of the audio recording clearly showed an abysmally compromised ‘officer’ dropping names to ingratiate his benefactor, a relative of a crime suspect.

“By the alleged action, the said officer is no more than a corrupt fifth columnist with scant regard for the values of the commission.”

On January 6, the commission announced the dismissal of 27 officers from its workforce for various offences bordering on fraudulent activities and misconduct.

Although the anti-graft agency made it appear recent, credible sources however said it was the total number of members of staff sacked for fraud since the establishment of EFCC in 2003.

Attempts by our correspondent to get the reaction of the EFCC spokesman, Dele Oyewale, were unsuccessful as he neither picked calls nor responded to an SMS sent to his known mobile number.