EFCC raids NAHCO Lagos office, summons officers

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has raided the National Aviation Handling Company at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.

A source in the company confided in our correspondent that the operatives of the commission stormed the complex at about 5pm on Thursday and immediately restricted movement in and out of the premises.

It was learnt that during the operation that lasted about three hours, the operatives conducted a thorough search on computers in some key offices, including the Audit department.

 After the search, the junior members of staff were told to go home while they questioned some senior workers.

The source said those quizzed included the company secretary, the head of Internal Audit and other some other senior members of staff. It was gathered that the raid might not be unconnected with the sacking of a senior management worker last Monday.

“They interrogated the company secretary, the head of Audit department and some heads of department, including asset management, infrastructure and cargo and the operatives didn’t leave until around 8pm,” the source said.

Even though the operatives left with no documents, the key officers were summoned to report to the commission at a later date for further investigation.

When contacted to know more about the raid and what date the officers were to report to the commission, the spokesperson for the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said he did not have the information about the raid but that he would find out and give our correspondent a feedback, which he had yet to do as of the time of filing this report.

But the Manager, Corporate Communications and Services, NAHCO AVIANCE, Mr. Tayo Ajakaye, when contacted, confirmed the operatives’ visit. He said the Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Bamidele Adelaja, was available to attend to them since the Managing Director and the company secretary were not around.

A statement which he later sent by e-mail to our correspondent on Sunday partly read, “Unable to meet with any of the two top company  officials, they (the operatives) then requested to see the Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Bamidele Adelaja, with whom they spent some time sorting out some company documents which they were interested in.

“The CFO confirmed that he was shown a search warrant by the EFCC officials even as he added that NAHCO was always ready to cooperate with government agencies and regulators in every way and was ready to do so in the present case.

“The visit, which started around 4pm ended a little after 7pm when the operatives left with a few documents.”

Ajakaiye noted  that the  actual cause of the visit remained unknown as the EFCC officials were “tight lipped” about the reason for their visit.