By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Dangote Industries Limited has promised to assist the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) with its investigation into the allocation of foreign exchange (FX) to the organisation by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) between 2014 and 2013.
Recall that last week, it was reported that the EFCC raided the Lagos office of the firm, owned by Mr Aliko Dangote, to get some documents relating to forex transactions.
In a statement on Sunday, the company stressed that the anti-graft agency did not raid its premises but only visited with a view to obtaining some documents, which it said had already been taken to the EFCC’s office as requested.
In the statement seen by Business Post, Dangote said that after receiving a letter from the EFCC on December 6, 2023, requesting details of all the FX allocated to it by the apex bank, it sought clarification on which of its subsidiaries are affected and asked for more time to make the information available.
“However, the EFCC did not provide the clarification sought, did not honour the request for an extension, and insisted on receiving the complete set of documents within the limited timeframe. The management of Dangote Group stated.
“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,” it added.
According to Dangote Group, “On January 4, 2024, our team delivered the first batch of documents to the EFCC. However, officers of the EFCC did not accept the documents, insisting on visiting our offices to collect the same set of documents directly.
“While our representatives were still at the EFCC’s office to deliver the documents, a team of their officers proceeded to visit our offices to demand the same documents in a manner that appeared designed to cause us unwarranted embarrassment.
“Worthy of note is the fact that the officials did not take any documents or files from our head office during their visit as these were already in their office.”
The organisation, which called for the understanding and patience of all stakeholders, maintained that “to our knowledge, no accusations of wrongdoing have been made against any company within our group.”
“At present, we are only responding to a request for information to assist the EFCC with their ongoing investigation,” it emphasised, promising to “inform [stakeholders] of any further developments.”
Dangote noted that it understands that “similar letters were sent to 51 other groups of companies requesting the same information spanning the same period.”
“As a law-abiding and ethical corporate citizen, we remain committed to providing the EFCC with all necessary information and cooperation,” it said, describing itself as “a key contributor to the national GDP, the largest employer in the private sector, one of the largest groups listed on the Nigerian Exchange, and one of the highest taxpayers in the country.”
