Sources in the anti-graft agency, who spoke with our correspondent on Friday, said the commission had also uncovered over N500m from the scam associated with Umar-Farouk’s successor, Betta Edu, who was recently suspended by President Bola Tinubu.

N37,170,855,753.44 was transferred from government coffers and sent to 38 different bank accounts domiciled in five legacy commercial banks belonging to or connected with a contractor, James Okwete.

It was gathered on Friday that N30bn was recovered by the EFCC following the placement of a lien on the bank accounts of Umar-Farouq and Okwete, who are still being grilled by the anti-graft agency’s investigators.

The agency is also still grilling Edu in connection with an alleged N17bn fraud, while the suspended Coordinator of the National Social Investment Programme, Halima Shehu, is also still being questioned over an alleged N44bn fraud.

An EFCC source revealed, “The commission has now recovered over N30bn from the laundered N37.1bn that was linked to former minister Sadiya Umar-Farouq. We were able to recover the money after we placed liens on the bank accounts of the former minister and the contractor, Mr Okwete, who was linked to the fraud under probe. Both the minister and the contractor are still being grilled by our investigators daily.”

A senior EFCC investigator added, “We have uncovered another N17bn money laundering from the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, and for the alleged fraud linked to the suspended minister, Betta Edu, we have so far recovered over N500m. Edu is still answering questions about the fraud.

“The NSIPA coordinator, Halima Shehu, is still being grilled over the N44bn fraud linked to her at the NSIPA; our investigators aren’t leaving any stone unturned.”

When contacted for comments on the development, the spokesperson for the EFCC, Dele Oyewale declined comments.

In another development, the EFCC said it recovered a total of N70,556,658,370.5 between October 2023 and January 19, 2024.

Details of the recovery were outlined in an EFCC document titled, ‘Operations and Recoveries’, which was exclusively obtained by our correspondent.

The document revealed that in the period under review, the EFCC recovered N60,969,047,634.25, $10,522,778.57, £150,002.10 and €4,119.90, making a total of N70,556,658,370.5.

It added that the EFCC received a total of 3,325 petitions, accepted 2,657 of the petitions, and secured the conviction of 747 persons for financial crimes ranging from money laundering to Internet fraud in the same period.

A breakdown of the data shows that the EFCC headquarters alone recovered N49,607,391,330.44, $3,900,200.75, £2,000, and £110.

The Maiduguri Zonal Command recovered N58,065,870 and $3,370; the Gombe Command recovered N127,323,028.50 and $1,500; while the Kano Command recovered N141,944,451 and $365.

The Makurdi Command recovered N53,228, 325; Enugu Command, N202,117,000; and $1,950; Uyo Command, N25,299,950 and $710; and Port Harcourt Command, N2,412,247,210.05 and $5,714,389.21.

The Sokoto Command recovered the sum of N100,696,118.72; Kaduna Command, N331,494,710.81, $912, £50, and €1,610; Ilorin Command, N80,280,580.86 and $880; Abuja Zonal Command, N825,928,463 and $10,000; and Ibadan Zonal Command, N135,519,810, $14517, £280, and €500.

The Lagos Zonal Command was said to have recovered N6,826,993,798.78, $868,284.61, £147,672.10, and €1,899.90, while the Benin Zonal Command recovered n49,515,987.09 and $5,700.

Within the same period, the agency said it secured the conviction of 747 persons for offences ranging from money laundering to cybercrimes.

However, the Chairman of the EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, at a dialogue in Abuja on Wednesday, revealed that most of the 747 convictions involved persons who were prosecuted for cybercrime offences.

Meanwhile, the commission has said that it has deepened its probe into money laundering cases involving some high-profile public officials, especially former governors and ministers indicted for fraud.

The total amount involved in the money laundering cases rose to around N130.1bn as of January 31, 2024.

Details of the development were contained in an EFCC document titled, ‘100 Days in Office’, detailing ongoing probes, discoveries, and recoveries made by the commission under Olukoyede.

Furthermore, because there is no official registry, there are no credible national figures on the number of missing people.

During a stakeholders meeting organized by the ministry in partnership with the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, Sadiya Umar-Farouk, the minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management, and social development, disclosed this information.

The government now lacks a national structure or Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to deal with the humanitarian effects of disappearances, according to Sadiya, who was represented by the permanent secretary Nasir Gwarzo.

”The Federal Government was very concerned about often-neglected and tragic humanitarian and social issues. Irregular migration by many Nigerians, including children across borders. The Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara Desert, in search of safety and a better life each year, often contribute to the great risk of disappearance as the latest figures show that Nigeria is recorded over 25,000 missing persons, including over 14,000 children out of the 64,000 disappeared persons across Africa”, the minister said.

Head of ICRC Nigeria Delegation, Yann Bonzon, revealed that over 13,000 families across the country were looking for their missing loved ones.

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar-Farouk made the announcement after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) alleged that the “school feeding claims by the Federal Government, when schools are shut due to COVID-19 pandemic, is a huge scam and a scheme by corrupt All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders and some officials in the Buhari presidency to siphon a targeted N13.5 billion public funds to finance their wasteful lifestyles.”

She said “For clarity, the programme which is funded by the federal government of Nigeria is implemented by the state governments and facilitated by the Federal Ministry of Human Affairs, disaster Management and Social Development. And this programme, as modified is targeted at heads of the households, guardians and caregivers of these children – primary school pupils one to three.  And also, we are not spending N679 million per day as alluded to, that number is inaccurate the take-home ration worth N4,200 per household and as planned as a monthly COVID-19 intervention for 3, 131,971 households in the participating States of the Federation. When the federal government ordered the closure of schools across the country in order to help flatten the curve on the COVID-19,  it interrupted the school feeding programme, which is one of our Cardinal projects has a government and which preceded the COVID-19  outbreak, because the programme was already ongoing food vendors had already been contacted and mobilized for the project. We are also mindful of the fact that most vendors having mobilised are made purchases Preparatory to the project as official. It’s not just possible to ask them for a refund. This has been done before the school calendar was disrupted. That is how we arrived at the modified school feeding programme of taking food rations into the households of these children. So how we got our data with children at home was another issue. When children are enrolled in schools, as part of the registration process has a detailed register which contains the address of parents and guardians of every people is kept with the school as well as the class teachers. We also obtained those from SUBEB and other sources. Also, in the community where there are children live, every child’s home can be easily identified by members of that community and management of these schools. So to ensure full transparency so that the programme is not compromised, we are submitting a full list of all the vendors to the EFFC and let me also state here that these vendors have been in the structure since 2016. So, we’re using the existing structure is not a whole new programme that was enrolling, no. The vendors that have been in the programme that we are using because they used to provide this food and materials to the cooks to cook. We have also invited other agencies of government including the DSS, EFFC, ICPC code of conduct and a host of NGOs and CSOs to help us monitor. I’m sure you agree with me yesterday, you must have noticed a large number of people participating in the process or in the flag off because we engage as many stakeholders as possible to be part of that being very mindful of the social distance guideline. I am going into some [details] in order to disapprove some misinformation and misunderstanding around the modified programme and to ask Nigerians to support this for an active intervention designed to keep our children fed during this pandemic, So that objective of this National homework school feeding programme is not compromised.”