Anti-graft investigators with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are currently interrogating a former managing director of one of the subsidiaries of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and three former executive directors of the oil corporation under ex-Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke.
The four are said to be under investigation by officials of the Subsidy Unit of the EFCC and their counterparts from the National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom in relation to the former minister’s case.
It was learnt on Sunday that the ex-NNPC MD and the three former EDs had already been directed to be reporting to investigators.
The four were said to be “very close” to Alison-Madueke while in office.
An EFCC source said the ex-minister might appear in court on today.
“The man has been sacked now. He has been reporting to the EFCC since. Even three former executive directors are also reporting to the EFCC to tell the agency what they know about the NNPC funds,” a top official of the anti-graft agency said.
Check however indicated that the former MD being investigated was not among the oil barons that were picked up in the UK for alleged complicity in the money laundering case against the former minister.
It was further gathered that security agents were also probing an estranged ally of the former minister and two others in the UK.
The UK authorities have been keeping the identities of the affected people in line with their practice of keeping the identities of those arrested until they are taken to court.
Our correspondents could not get the Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, on Sunday as calls to his mobile telephone line indicated that it had been switched off. -Punch.
