40 Vehicles Recovered From Ex-Perm Sec Bought With Bank Loan

The over 40 vehicles allegedly recovered from a former Federal Permanent Secretary by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, might have been purchased with a N1.8 billion bank loan.

It was learned that the vehicles in question were purchased with a facility from a new generation bank, as part of the transportation plans for the Jonathan/Sambo Campaign arrangements for the presidential election in 2015.

A source close to the Campaign Organisation clarified that contrary to the generally held view that the vehicles were purchased with corruption money, they were paid for with the facility.

As learned, some of the vehicles that came into the campaign pool as donations or purchased with party funds had already been distributed or returned to the donors, while those bought with the loan were kept in the custody of the former Perm Sec while arrangements were on to sell them in order to re-pay the loan. The N1.8 billion loan was obtained on November 20, 2014 for the purchase of ‘luxury vehicles for VIP use’ with an extended repayment plan beginning from December 2016.

The loan was said to have been released in five tranches and the bank had made statements to EFCC detailing the transactions in September, last year. The bank was said to have informed the EFCC that the loan followed due process and that those who took the facility could not be said to have defaulted as at then since the repayment was slated to start in December 2016.