Abubakar Isa Funtua
By Our ReporterÂ
The son of the late business mogul billionaire Alh Isa Funtua, Abubakar Isa Funtu, is currently being interrogated by the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over his involvement in a N28 billion alleged fraud.
Abubakar and his Ugandan business associate, Asega Aliga, are accused of embezzling N28 billion from Keystone Bank and fleeing the country.
Operatives of the anti-graft agency arrested Abubakar in his Abuja residence on Friday.
Before his arrest and detention by the EFCC, Abubakar who was said to have initially fled to Spain has a substantial wealth, estimated at $300 million in cash and properties, which is now under scrutiny. Aliga, on the other hand, is believed to be hiding in Uganda.
The pair purportedly used 13 phoney business concerns to obtain agricultural loans from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under Godwin Emefiele; they refused to repay the billion before going into hiding.
According to sources, Abubakar and Aliga had used proxies to set up a company called Seltrix Nigeria Limited, where most of the N28 billion collected from the CBN as Agric loans were warehoused. Only about N4 billion is now left in the Seltrix account. The impact of their actions is significant, as Keystone Bank can no longer recover its money because the companies that used to obtain those loans only exist on paper.
