The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it has discovered a sum of N448m suspected to be laundered money inside an abandoned shop on Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island, Lagos.
The anti-graft agency disclosed that its personnel visited the shopping plaza, where the shop is located, after it received a tip-off by a whistleblower.
“The money stashed in several Ghana-Must-Go bags were in N500 and N1000 denominations, hidden in a shop awaiting conversion into foreign currency,” the Commission said in a statement.
“The attention of the plaza’s chairman and some traders were drawn in order to force the shops open.
”There was no money found in shop 67, but in shop 64 heaps of Ghana-Must-Go bags were found loaded on the floor of the shop.
”When the bags were unzipped they were found to contain bundles of naira notes totalling N448,850,000.”
The EFCC further said traders interviewed at the premises claimed they were not aware that such money was hidden inside the shop, as the place hardly opens for business.