Aisha Achimugu said on Monday that only $50,000 and N13 million were found in her house when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission searched the property last year, pushing back on reports that $13 million was recovered.
Speaking on Politics Today on Channels Television, Achimugu said the figure of $13 million was inaccurate and misleading. She said the money found in the house included N13 million belonging to her mother, along with her personal belongings, and insisted she is not the kind of person who keeps such large sums of cash at home.
Her remarks came more than a year after the EFCC declared her wanted in an alleged case of criminal conspiracy and money laundering. The commission had also reportedly carried out a search operation at her residence as part of its probe, setting off conflicting reports about how much money was recovered.
Achimugu declined to go into further detail about the alleged $13 million, saying the matter is already before the court. But she used the interview to firmly reject the central claim attached to the case, saying Nigerians had been given the wrong impression about what was found in her home.
She said she has children who go to school abroad, which is why she keeps foreign currency for emergencies, but not on the scale that has been suggested. That is the point she wanted to make on Monday: the search happened, the case is in court, and the $13 million figure, she said, was not what the raid turned up.
