Dangote Officials Summoned to Abuja as EFCC Extends Probe of Forex Scandal

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has summoned some officials of the Dangote Group to Abuja to come along with detailed documents on foreign exchange transactions by the conglomerate covering the last nine years.

Operatives of the EFCC had on Thursday stormed the headquarters of Dangote Industries Limited in Ikoyi, Lagos, in furtherance of the ongoing investigation into the alleged abuse of the foreign exchange allocations by the immediate past governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele.

The anti-graft commission is probing the alleged preferential allocations of forex to the Dangote Group owned by billionaire Aliko Dangote and 51 other companies under the Emefiele-led CBN.

VOP News gathered that the operatives carted away some documents from the group’s head office on Thursday, but they did not cover all the transactions, hence the decision to summon the officials to bring the documents to Abuja on Tuesday.

VOP News also learnt that Dangote was not in Nigeria when the operatives of the commission stormed the headquarters of his conglomerate as he was said to be in the United States of America.

However, sources said he would return to Nigeria next week to personally sort out the problem.

But a highly placed EFCC official said senior executives of the company had been mandated to supply the commission with what he called “detailed and unambiguous documents on the demands by the commission.”

The officials would be expected at the agency’s office on Tuesday.

An official of the Dangote Group also confirmed that some key personnel of the conglomerate were currently gathering the documents requested by the EFCC to clear the company of any wrongdoing.

The source noted that the firm had sent some documents and key members of staff to the EFCC headquarters in Abuja in respect to the ongoing investigation, adding that it was shocked that the anti-graft agency still stormed its Lagos office on Thursday