Nigeria’s anti-corruption squad seized assets worth $55 million accumulated by a deceased electoral official after his two wives drew attention to the fortune by fighting over the will, a spokesman said on Wednesday.
Timothy Akanni, the late finance director of the Independent National Electoral Commission who was also an evangelical preacher, died in a plane crash last October.
His wives, who did not previously know of each other, squabbled over the inheritance and one of them took her complaints to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), a spokesman for the agency said.
Dozens of flats, houses
A Federal High Court order authorizing the EFCC to seize the assets lists dozens of houses, flats, shops and plots of land in Lagos and Abuja, a bakery, two schools, three luxury cars, three buses and the contents of 26 separate bank accounts.
Justice Anwuri Chikere allowed the EFCC to seize the assets pending investigation of his alleged “involvement in the acts of money laundering and other related economic and financial crimes”, court documents showed.
The case is likely to add pressure on the electoral agency, which is under investigation by the National Assembly for inflating contracts.
It is preparing for elections next April which should mark the first transition from one elected president to another in Africa’s top oil producer.
