The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested two Chinese for offering in cash N100 million as bribe to the Zonal Head of the anti-graft agency in Sokoto State, Abdullahi Lawal.
The agency disclosed this in a series of tweets on Tuesday, noting that the arrest was made on Monday in Sokoto.
According to the EFCC, the sum was allegedly offered in a desperate bid to compromise ongoing investigations of a construction company, China Zhonghao Nigeria Limited, which was handling contracts awarded by the Zamfara State Government in the sum of N50 billion between 2012 and 2019.
It tweeted: “The zonal office of the Commission is investigating the construction company, in connection with the execution of contracts for the construction of township roads in Gummi, Bukkuyun, Anka and Nassarawa towns of Zamfara state; and also the construction of one hundred and sixty-eight (168) solar-powered boreholes in the 14 local government areas of the state.
“Alarmed by 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.
“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 evidence.
The anti-graft agency further explained that the investigation of the construction company was informed by intelligence on 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.
