Nigeria declares ex-spy chief, wife wanted

LAGOS, Nigeria

Nigeria's anti-graft agency on Sunday declared the country's former spy chief and his wife wanted after they repeatedly spurned court summons to answer to corruption charges.

Ayodele Oke, former director general of the National Intelligence Agency -- Nigeria's equivalent of the FBI -- had been charged alongside his wife, Folasade, for unlawfully keeping $8.4 billion in public funds.

The two are also facing a $36.1 million money laundering charge at a federal high court in Lagos, where a judge recently ordered their arrest for refusing to appear to take their pleas.

“Oke and his wife are wanted in connection with the $43.5 million, 27,800 British pounds, and 23,218,000 Nigerian naira -- totaling $8.4 billion -- cash recovered by the EFCC from an apartment at Osborne Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, in April 2017,” according to a statement from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Oke was suspended in 2017 after officials discovered the money in their apartment.