Chairman of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, has filed a petition with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), accusing the immediate past Managing Director of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed, of corruption and abuse of office.
The development was disclosed on Friday in a statement issued by the Dangote Group’s media office.
According to the statement, the move comes days after Dangote withdrew a similar petition earlier submitted to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). Despite the withdrawal, the ICPC had announced that it would continue its investigation into the matter.
The new petition to the EFCC, the statement explained, was filed as a strategic step to hasten the handling of the allegations.
“The withdrawal of the same petition from the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission was a strategic decision aimed at accelerating the prosecution process,” the statement said.
Dangote had initially asked the ICPC to probe Ahmed over allegations that he spent about $5 million on the secondary education of his children in Switzerland, an expense he claimed could not be justified by the former regulator’s known sources of income.
In the petition now before the EFCC, signed by Dangote’s lead counsel, Dr O.J. Onoja (SAN), the industrialist urged the anti-graft agency to investigate Ahmed for alleged corrupt enrichment and abuse of public office, and to initiate prosecution should the allegations be substantiated.
Ahmed served as the managing director of the NMDPRA until his recent exit from office.
