Tony Osauzo, Benin-City

‎The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) announced today that it has received 654 petitions from Edo, Delta and Ondo States in the first one year of opening its Benin Zonal Office.

‎Head of the Benin Zonal Office, Mailafia Yakubu, who disclosed this, explained that  557 of the petitions were approved for investigations while 64 were rejected, adding that nine petitions were forwarded to other zones for logistic reasons and 23 cases were sent to the Nigeria Police Force because matters raised in them were within the jurisdiction of the Police.

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Yakubu further explained that the Commission secured nine convictions in the last one year while 28 cases are still pending in court, disclosing that the sum of N312 million belonging to the Federal Government, corporate bodies and individuals was recovered by the commission.

A breakdown of the recovered fund, according to Yakubu, showed that N4,209,097.96 belonged to the Federal Government, N147,220,600 was for corporate bodies and N161,131,887 belonged to individuals.

“We have also secured the final forfeiture of a Toyota Corolla to the federal government while we are in the process of securing the interim forfeiture of two houses and three vessels used for illegal activities”, Yakubu said, adding that the greatest challenge facing the zone is the concealing of crimes by some parents.