The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Uyo Zonal Directorate has handed over the sum of One Hundred Million Naira (N100,000,000) draft to the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development in Akwa Ibom State as funds recovered from mining companies that failed to pay royalties to government from their activities.
Handing over the drafts on behalf of the Executive Chairman of EFCC, Ola Olukoyede to the representatives of the Ministry, on Friday, the Assistant Commander of the EFCC, ACE 1 Oshodi Johnson said the commission would not relent in fighting against every form of economic sabotage and recovering of government assets.
He decried the manner in which many mining companies in the state take resources and default in payment of royalties to federal government insisting that the commission would continue to go after them
While acknowledging the synergy among sister and federal agencies in the state, Oshodi said the investigations and recovery were made possible following the petitions by the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals in the first instance.
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His words, “The ministry put up a petition about many companies operating within the confines of the state, taking resources and failing to give back to Federal government. This is a sabotage and we won’t allow that to thrive because by extension the general public suffers.
“With the approval of the Executive Chairman, we are handing over the draft publicly to the ministry. The amount on the drafts is N100million. I want the general public to know that this is just a tip of the iceberg and the Commission will continue to recover every government kobo that is hanging anywhere. We are still investigating and we are going to make bigger recoveries in this sector and beyond.”
He called for more collaborations between Federal Ministries and the anti-graft agency, especially in information sharing for optimal result.
Receiving the drafts on behalf of the ministry, Emmanuel Bassey applauded the commission for the quick response and diligence in ensuring that concerns raised in the petition were attended to.
He also acknowledged the importance of collaboration between EFCC and the ministry saying that such should be deepened.
He said, “I commend the zonal director for his quick response in addressing the concerns contained in the petition we sent This sector is very critical to the economy because without this sector, the country struggles, so the synergy really needs to be deepened. With this, we are hoping that much more will come.”
Mining Royalties: Akwa Ibom: EFCC hand over recovered N202m draft to FG
