YENAGOA, SEPTEMBER 21, 2018 – Police in Nigeria recovered $470.5 million in bank accounts related to the state oil company as part of an exercise to recover stolen funds, and the money will be sent to government coffers, the country’s police force said on Thursday.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who won the 2015 election on an anti-corruption ticket, ordered government revenues to be placed in a Treasury Single Account (TSA) at the central bank as part of an anti-corruption drive. Money recovered from alleged graft would also be put in the account.
The police on Thursday said they had launched a nationwide exercise to recover stolen funds, to be placed in the TSA, during which it discovered money related to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) Liquefied Natural Gas business unit.
Moshood, who said the recovery followed an investigation by specialist police units, did not state when the money was recovered.
A spokesman for NNPC did not immediately respond to phone calls and text messages requesting comment.
Buhari plans to seek a second term in a presidential elections scheduled to take place in February 2019.
