The Dangote Group has expressed concern over EFCC’s denial of adequate time to respond to allegations and submit ten years’ worth of the company’s foreign exchange records in response to the recent EFCC raid on their Lagos headquarters.
The management of the Dangote Group, through an official press statement, claims that the anti-graft commission failed to grant them adequate time to respond to accusations and provide a decade’s worth of documentation regarding their foreign exchange records.
The company also stressed that the visitation was impromptu and unwarranted.
Recall that EFCC officials visited the Dangote Group headquarters in Lagos over details of foreign exchange allocated to it by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from 2014 to the present.
What Dangote is Saying
Clarifying the incident of January 4, 2024, Dangote noted the following:
- “On 6 December 2023, we received a letter requesting details of all the foreign exchange allocated to our company by the Central Bank of Nigeria from 2014 to the present. We understand similar letters were sent to 51 other Groups of companies requesting for same information spanning the same period.
- “We responded to the EFCC to acknowledge receipt of the letter whilst seeking clarification on the subsidiaries or companies within the Group that they required information on. We also requested additional time to compile and properly present the extensive documentation spanning ten years.
- “The EFCC did not provide the clarification sought and also did not honour our request for an extension and insisted on receiving the complete set of documents within the limited timeframe. Despite this constraint, we assured the EFCC of our commitment to providing the information and pledged to share documents in batches as we complete the compilation.”
Commitment to Cooperation with EFCC
- While acknowledging their commitment to providing the EFCC with the necessary information, Dangote Group highlighted their cooperation by delivering the first batch of documents.
- The company assured full compliance, actively working to compile and submit the remaining documents to aid the ongoing investigation.
- “As a law-abiding and ethical corporate citizen, we remain committed to providing the EFCC with all necessary information and cooperation. We have already delivered the first batch of documents and are actively working to compile and submit the remaining documents, in good time, to aid their investigation,” the company said.
