Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Thursday raided the homes of the Chairman of the National Electricity Regulatory Commission, Dr. Ransome Owan and six of his commissioners located in Abuja.
Sources close to the commission said that the operatives of the EFCC raided the homes of the officials who were arrested and detained on Wednesday and discovered vital documents.
According to the sources, some of the documents retrieved in their homes include share certificates and documents on banks deposits.
Apart from these, our correspondent reliably gathered that, part of the troubles of the suspects was that they were alleged to have shared over N100m each, of money suspected to belong to the commission.
The source alleged that part of the documents retrieved at the home of the chairman included possible details of a N500m bank lodgment into a private account.
Also retrieved by the EFCC agents at the home of the only woman among them were share certificates in blue chip companies across the country.
When contacted, the Head, Media and Publicity of EFCC, Mr. Femi Babafemi, said that he did not have the details at the moment, but confirmed the raids on the suspects‘ homes.
He also confirmed that the suspects were still being detained by the commission as more information was being extracted from them to know the level of their involvement in the alleged fraud.
The spokesperson of NERC, Mr. Patrick Ayendi when contacted on phone, confirmed that his bosses were still in the EFCC custody but denied knowing whether their homes were searched.
He said since their arrests on Wednesday, they had been held incommunicado.
”Since their arrest yesterday (two days ago), we have not been able to talk to them,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Commission on Thursday in compliance with a court ruling, paid N3m to a Lagos based business man for unlawful detention
Dr. Sylveter Odigie, who was between May 24 and July 6 2006 remanded at Kuje Prison by the EFCC, was granted a reprieve by an Abuja High Court last week that ordered the agency to pay the damages.
Apart from this, the court ordered that the commission should tender an unreserved apology to Odigie for the embarrassment he was made to go through.