Alleged N10bn Fraud: EFCC Unravels More Details On Akume’s Aide, Torhile Uchi

The Personal Assistant to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Hon Andrew Torhile Uchi, who has been cooling off at the facility of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), over N10 billion allegation of fraud may have divulged more details of his alleged crime to the anti-graft agency.

Forefront News gathered that Uchi, who has been working with the SGF, Senator George Akume, for over one year now, volunteered information with regards to his activities and how he acted as a front to some federal appointees from Benue State.

Checks indicated that the embattled Personal Assistant to the SGF, confessed to his interrogators that about 80 per cent of the money in question were proceeds of laundered funds he and his wife carried out in the name of his principal, Senator Akume.

Some of the deals were carried out in the SGF’s name took place at the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) as the suspect and his wife were engaged in the use of official documents belonging to the office of the SGF in transacting business at the NNPC Ltd running into billions of Naira.

Uchi, according to a source with the EFCC, also claimed that he was able to collect bribes from some other oil companies and private organisations operating in the country in the name of his principal, the SGF.

It was also gathered that one of the lids that exposed Uchi was the mansion he started building with part of the proceeds from illicit funds. The building is situated within the same vicinity as the Judges Quarters and the residence of Senator George Akume in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.

The three-storey building is estimated to cost about N2 billion with so many furnished living rooms and about 50 air conditioners already installed.

Information pieced together indicated that it was when the wife of the SGF, Mrs Regina Akume visited the mansion during the 2024 Christmas season that Uchi’s trouble started as she was seriously worried that the lifestyle of her husband’s Personal Assistant needed to be investigated.

It was also gathered that Uchi’s crisis further worsened when it was discovered that he was also involved in buying several properties across the country which prompted an internal probe to be carried out within the SGF’s office.

Following his arrest by the EFCC, it was discovered that the embattled Uchi was operating three different bank accounts in the United Kingdom and Netherlands which he was using to launder funds for some federal appointees from Benue State.