Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has said the raid of his Lagos Head Office by the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in January was to embarrass his company.
The visit by the EFCC was part of a probe into alleged preferential allocations of forex to the Dangote Group and 51 other companies under the Emefiele-led Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The forex malpractices and money laundering involved a staggering $3.4bn allegedly facilitated by Emefiele during the Buhari administration.
Before the raid, Dangote Industries in November 2023 had refuted allegations that it was involved in the alleged forex heist.
However, on Tuesday, Dangote revisited the issue when he was asked during an interview with Bloomberg.
According to the billionaire industrialist, “They visited the office but didn’t talk to anybody, nor did they arrest anyone. It was just to cause embarrassment.”
He further maintained that despite the challenges, their operations remain “100 per cent clean,” given their significant role in Nigeria’s economy.
He reiterated that his group of companies remain the highest-paying organization in Nigeria and pay more taxes than the banking sector.
At the peak of the issue, the anti-graft commission wrote to 52 companies directing them to provide documents supporting the allocation and utilisation of foreign exchange sold to them at official rates in the last 10 years.
EFCC asked the firms to submit Form A and Form M which detailed the forex allocations to them between 2014 and June 2023.
But while some companies complied with the directive, several others were said to have pleaded for time to get the proper documents.
A Dangote official had claimed the firm honoured the EFCC’s request and wondered why the commission chose to embarrass them.
“We don’t know why they (EFCC officials) came to our office again; we had earlier been invited to the office of the EFCC. As such, the Dangote officials took along all the documents and submitted them. We don’t know why they eventually decided to visit our office again.
“The question we are asking is what did they come to take from our office when we had honoured their invitation? They left with empty hands because all the documents they wanted from us had been taken to them. The same EFCC that came to our office is the one giving information to the media that they are investigating us,’’ the official said. – Dangote.
