The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) Friday said it has discovered a sum of N448, 850 suspected to be laundered money inside an abandoned bureau de change on the premises of LEGICO Shopping Plaza, Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island, Lagos.
The Commission said it operatives visited the shopping plaza after it received a tip-off by a whistleblower.
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“The money stashed in several Ghana-Must-Go bags were in N500 and N1000 denominations, hidden in a shop awaiting conversion into foreign currency,” the Commission said in a statement.
“The attention of the plaza’s chairman and some traders were drawn in order to force the shops open. There was no money found in shop 67, but in shop 64 heaps of Ghana-Must-Go bags were found loaded on the floor of the shop. When the bags were unzipped they were found to contain bundles of naira notes totalling N448,850,000.”
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Traders interviewed at the premises, according to the EFCC, claimed they were not aware that such money was housed inside the shop, as the place hardly opens for business.
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In February, the EFCC recovered $9.8 million and £74, 000, all in cash, from the residence of the former group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Andrew Yakubu. But the former NNPC boss claimed the money was given to him as a gift by unnamed persons and has gone to court to challenge its seizure by the commission.
