The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it has arrested First Bank Holding chairman Nnamdi Okonkwo over $72.87 million linked to former petroleum minister Diezani Allison-Madueke.
Wilson Uwujaren, the spokesperson for EFCC, announced on Wednesday in Abuja that Mr Okonkwo, a former managing director of Fidelity Bank Plc, was under detention in connection with the money.
“While all the $153 million were recovered by the EFCC, the cases involving $115 million, as it relates with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) bribery matter, are in various courts,” he explained.
“Okonkwo and Charles Onyedibe are currently being detained by the EFCC over the whereabouts of the new $72.87 million.”
Mr Uwujaren, who disclosed that the money was lodged in the bank’s coffers, added that Mr Okonkwo’s arrest was part of ongoing investigations on the former minister.
According to him, Mr Okonkwo, who currently chairs the First Bank Holding, alongside others, had earlier been interrogated for over $153 million and $115 million by the anti-graft agency.
The board of FBN Holdings Plc had on October 28 appointed Mr Okonkwo the new GMD of the company with effect from January 1, 2022.
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He will succeed U.K. Eke, who will step down on December 31, according to the company’s note to the Nigerian Exchange Limited.
Mrs Alison-Madueke, who is at the centre of the ongoing investigations has since left the country shortly after leaving office in 2015.
Various sums of money and other assets, including jewellery and houses linked to her, had been seized and forfeited to the federal government.
But EFCC’s efforts to extradite her from the United Kingdom, where she is believed to have fled to, to face trial back home have failed to yield results.
