Anti-graft body writes to UK's NCA asking it probe five senators who have houses in Britain

NIGERIA's Special Presidential Investigative Panel on the Recovery of Public Property (SPIP) has written to the UK's National Crime Authority (NCA) asking it to investigate five senators who are believed to own properties in Britain and the Virgin Islands.

Announcing that the SPIP is stepping up its war against public officials who have carted the country's money abroad, its chairman Chief Okoi Obono-Obla said the five legislators are believed to own property illegally both in the UK and the British Virgin islands. he listed the five senators as Ike Ekweremadu, Hope Uzodinma, Stella Odua, Peter Nwaoboshi and Albert Bassey Akpan.

Chief Obono-Obla said: “The UK has passed a law that will also help us in Nigeria fight corruption and that is the Unexplained Wealth Regulation, which entails that if you have a property in the UK that is above $50, 000, you have to explain your source of wealth and property here does not just mean a building but even jewelleries. So, we have written the NCA in the UK asking them to investigate some Nigerian public officers who have property in the UK and the Virgin Islands."

He pointed out that if they are found culpable, they would be prosecuted in accordance with extant laws and made to forfeit such properties. Chief Obono-Obla who is also the special assistant to the president on public prosecutions, added that five oil companies are also under investigation for tax evasion and refusal to pay royalties to the Nigerian government.

Chief Obono-Obla denied accusations by Senator Uzodinma that the panel was being instigated against him by the Imo State governor Rochas Okorocha with whom he fought a vicious political battle over the governorship ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state. According to Chief Obono-Obla, they are not just only going after the senators but also companies that have refused to remit money owed to the federal government.

"These companies have not remitted over $1bn to the government. A lot of oil companies are contributing to the economic challenges facing the country, denying Nigeria of royalties and also evading taxes and money that would have been channelled to the development of the country.

“Working with the Federal Inland Revenue Service, we discovered that Addax Petroleum has failed to pay tax for five years and so they are owing about N700m. Then, thanks to a petition we received from Femi Falana, Mobil which purchased an oil bloc in 2001 for $2.5nn is yet to pay about $1.9bn of that money to the government, so we have commenced our investigations too,” Chief Obono-Obla added.

He said the panel was also looking at a petition involving a top official of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation as well as against the management of the Central Bank of Nigeria under governors Chukwuma Soludo and Sanusi Lamido, with regards to debt cancellations to banks.