A federal lawmaker, Ikeagwuonu Ugochinyere, has condemned the raid by the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the headquarters of Dangote Group in Lagos on Thursday, December 4.

The EFCC stormed the company’s headquarters as part of the ongoing investigation into foreign exchange (FX) allocated to it by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the past ten years.

The anti-graft agency raided the group’s headquarters and demanded documents relating to the allocation of foreign exchange to the firm in the last ten years.

After scrutinising documents provided by the group’s officials, the operatives went away with some of the papers.

The spokesperson for the EFCC, Dele Oyewale, when contacted, did not pick up his calls or respond to the text and WhatsApp messages sent to him to react to the arrest.

Also, the spokesperson for the Dangote Group, Anthony Chiejina, did not pick up calls to his phone line or respond to text and WhatsApp messages from The ICIR.

But commenting on the raid, the federal lawmaker, Ugochinyere, who is the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream),  said the raid was suspicious and capable of worsening the economic situation and scaring investors away.

“I’m of the view that the timing of the raid on Dangote Group is not only very suspicious but, most importantly, capable of worsening the economic situation and scaring investors. In the last few months, our nation has lost so many foreign investors. While some of the foreign companies operating in the country are leaving, potential investors are also sidelining us…

“The Dangote Group, with investments in several sectors and across 14 countries in Africa, this is not a good look for us internationally. What will the international community think of Nigeria when they read about news like this? Dangote Group’s impact for decades has been felt through various facets of Nigeria’s economy,” Ugochinyere said.

The EFCC had earlier written to 52 companies directing them to supply documents supporting the allocation and utilisation of foreign currencies in the last ten years.

The letters were part of an ongoing investigation into alleged preferential FX allocations to individuals and organisations by the former CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, led administration.

An investigative report by the special investigator, Jim Obazee, appointed by President Bola Tinubu to investigate the CBN, accused the apex bank of favouring and enriching some individuals and companies through non-transparent allocation of foreign exchange to them.

The report, said to have been submitted to President Bola Tinubu and leaked to the media, had revealed how a forensic audit of the CBN under Emefiele uncovered 593 bank accounts domiciled in the United States, the United Kingdom and China in which Nigerian funds were deposited without authorisation from the board and investment committee of the apex bank.

The report also uncovered that the sum of 543.4 million pounds was kept by Emefiele in fixed deposit accounts, adding that the former CBN governor manipulated the naira exchange rate and committed fraud in the e-Naira project.

“The Dangote Group is perhaps Africa’s largest conglomerate, and it is troubling that the EFCC could deal with it in an unnecessary show of force, especially when it is not obstructing its investigation in any form,” Premium Times quoted him as saying.

On November 7, 2023, The ICIR reported how Dangote Group and its main competitor in the cement industry, BUA Group, traded words over illegal FX dealing.

Dangote denied the allegation and claimed that the BUA Group was spreading inaccurate and detrimental information about the company’s image and reputation. Giving a fresh twist to an assertion that did not sail through in 2016, EFCC raided the company’s headquarters on Thursday.

Dangote Group’s FX transactions in 10 years

An analysis of Dangote Cement’s financial statements from December 2013 to September 2023 shows that the Group reported N111.603 billion FX gain and N183.29 billion FX loss.

Dangote reported N1.91 billion FX transaction gain in 2013, N12.87 billion in 2014, N 12.250 billion in 2015, N41.16 billion in 2016, N26.79 billion in 2017, and N16.63 billion in 2020.

In contrast, the company recorded N8.11 billion FX loss in 2018, N13.48 billion in 2019, N8.77 billion in 2021, N53.93 billion in 2022, and N99 billion in the nine months of 2023.

In the statements, the company stated repeatedly that its business was exposed to significant shortages of foreign exchange obligations.