The House of Representatives Committee on Finance, on Thursday expressed commendation for the Nigerian Customs and Excise over its recent interception of $8.62 million at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos.
Management of Customs, led by its Comptroller General, Col. Hammeed Ali (rtd), appeared before the committee to appraise its internally generated revenue between 2014 and 2019.
Presenting the applaud of the committee, its chairman, Hon. James Faleke said “at a period when the US is giving us conditions before the so called Abacha loot would be returned, it is quite unfortunate that so much amount is yet to be take outside the country. We have to commend the Comptroller General and his men for being vigilant”.
Recalling what transpired before the committee, Ali said attention of his men at the airport was drawn by the manner in which the vehicle conveying the wraps of dollar got in, by using a security restricted door, and driving up to the Tarmac having three commercial aircrafts already waiting for passengers’ boarding.
“We are still at the preliminary investigation stage, so we are not sure which of the aircrafts the money was intended to be transported. The wraps actually have names of persons but we are not yet sure if the names were real or fictitious.
“We do not have power to investigate financial crimes, so after the preliminary investigation, we will subsequently hand over to the EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission). It is the EFCC that will try to find out whether it is a case of money laundering, who owns the money and what it is meant for”, he said, adding that the Customs still had driver of the vehicle in detention.
