The office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) says it does not know the whereabouts of the 44 million dollars recovered from the office of the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA) in 2017.
The ONSA Director of Finance and Admin, Brig. General Ja’afaru Mohammed, said this on Tuesday while briefing the House Adhoc committee investigating the management of recovered funds between 2002 and 2020.
Mohammed noted that the ONSA was not in the custody of the money recovered by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC).
He added that the ONSA has nothing to do with recovered funds, assets and the management of such.
He explained that the only money recovered from the NIA was about 41 million dollars which were the funds of the NIA which have been returned to the office on the directive of the President.
He said “The NIA was under investigation and the President directed that the ONSA should take charge of the place. I was sent there to take charge of the funds of the agency. I went there and counted the money in their vault and it was about 41 million dollars.
“We kept that money and after the investigation, the President ordered that the money be returned to the agency. We have returned it to the owners as directed by the President.”
The Chairman of the Adhoc Committee, Hon. Adejoro Adeogun had quoted the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa as saying that the fund recovered from the NIA office in Ikoyi was in the custody of the Office of the National Security Adviser.
This article was originally published on Nigeria News