EFCC arrests Chinese nationals for bribing officer with N100m

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Two Chinese nationals have been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for offering bribes worth N50 million to a top official of the anti graft agency.

The EFCC disclosed in a statement posted on its verified Twitter page that the suspects, Meng Wei Kun and Xu Koi, who were arrested in Sokoto on Monday allegedly offered to bribe the Zonal Head of the agency in the State, Abdullahi Lawal with the objective of compromising ongoing investigation of corruption.

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“The bribe was allegedly offered in a desperate bid to compromise ongoing investigations of a construction company, China Zhonghao Nig. Ltd, handling contracts awarded by the Zamfara State Government in the sum of N50,000,000,000.00(Fifty Billion Naira)”, the commission stated.

The EFCC’s investigation of China Zhonghao Nigeria Ltd is in connection with the execution of contracts for the construction of township roads in Gummi, Bukkuyun, Anka and Nassarawa towns of Zamfara state, including the construction of 168 solar- powered boreholes in the 14 local government areas of the state.

The EFCC stated that due to “the consistency and professionalism of investigation being conducted, the company reached out to Lawal with an offer of N100,000,000( One Hundred Million Naira) as bribe to “bury” the matter.

“In a grand design to trap the corrupt officials, Lawal played along. On Monday, two representatives of the company Meng Wei Kun and Xu Kuoi offered him cash totalling fifty million naira in their office along airport road, Sokoto. The cash was offered as a first installment.

“The suspects were promptly arrested with the cash as an evidence”, EFCC stated.

China Zhonghao Nig. Ltd is being investigated for alleged conspiracy, misappropriation of public funds, embezzlement, official corruption, abuse of office, stealing and money laundering obtained against the Zamfara state government through inflated and uncompleted contracts awarded to the company.

Investigations have so far revealed that China Zounghao Ltd has received payments of over N41 billion from the Zamfara State government out of which about N16 billion equivalent to over $53 million was allegedly diverted and traced to some bureau de change operators .