Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested the recently appointed Managing Director of First Bank of Nigeria Holdings Plc, Nnamdi Okonkwo.
A top official at the commission, who pleaded anonymity, told The Guardian, yesterday night, that the arrest was part of ongoing investigations of former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
According to the source, Okonkwo was arrested and detained by the anti-graft agency over an additional $72, 870,000 million still in the coffers of the bank.
Okonkwo, alongside others, had earlier been grilled over a sum of $153 million and $115 million by the commission.
The EFCC had claimed Diezani siphoned $153 million out of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and stashed it in three banks in the country.
The anti-graft agency had in January 2017 said Okonkwo allegedly helped Diezani to take delivery of the money, and kept $40 million with the former Executive Director, Public Sector Accountant, First Bank Plc, Mr. Dauda Lawal, in order to conceal the source.
On January 6, the EFCC had approached Justice Muslim Hassan and obtained an interim order, directing that the funds be temporarily forfeited to the Federal Government.