Who dunnit? Which minister, bank chief exchanged $20 million cash for property?

A real estate deal worth $37 million has gone down among a bank Managing Director, a female minister, a lawyer, and an estate developer, but the identity of the parties involved still a mystery as Nigeria’s chief financial investigator has chosen to keep sealed lips

The Chairman of the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, dropped the bombshell of how the minister deposited $20m cash (about N10 billion) on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme.

He confirmed the suspicion in many circles that the real estate sector was a conduit for ill-gotten wealth, calling for tighter regulations.

Bada’s story, “One of the problems we have in the country is the real estate. Ninety to 100 per cent of the resources are being laundered through the real estate. Of course, they are being regulated but they are not enough in terms of how they give their returns to the Special Control Unit.

“We investigated a matter in which a bank MD marketed a property to a minister and agreed to purchase it at $37.5m. The bank then sent a vehicle to her house to evacuate $20m from her house in the first instance.

“The bank succeeded to put it in their system and paid the developer and then a lawyer set up a special purpose vehicle where the title documents were transferred into and of course, he is posing as the owner of the house.

“Without the help of the banker, the minister couldn’t have imagined collecting $20m from anyone with opportunity from the real sector; she could not have thought of where to launder the proceeds of crime.”

Whether he was referring to a serving minister was a puzzle as many suggest the brazen corruption could not have taken place under President Muhammadu Buhari, without heads rolling by now.