ANTIGRAFT AGENCY IN RAID
Former boss of Nigeria oil firm Andrew Yakubu probed
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said it had seized $9.8m from a house belonging to Yakubu
Lagos — A former head of Nigeria’s state-run oil firm, Andrew Yakubu, is under investigation after almost $10m in cash was found at a property he owns. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said it had seized $9.8m from a house belonging to Yakubu. A further £74,000 was found at the property in the northern city of Kaduna. Nigeria is in recession and desperately needs cash, having been hit hard by the slump in global oil prices since mid-2014 that has squeezed revenue and pushed up inflation. Observers have said the money could have financed a string of much-needed conventional and renewable power projects outlined in the 2017 federal budget. The anticorruption agency’s spokesman Wilson Uwujaren would not reveal its next steps, only saying that the matter was under investigation. Yakubu has denied any wrongdoing. He admitted the money belonged to him but said it was a gift from friends. Yakubu was the group MD of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation from 2012 to 2014. ...
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