The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has
reopened fraud cases against thirteen former governors and some former
ministers, with the amounts involved running into over N853.8bn.
According to Sunday PUNCH, the amount at stake in the
high-profile cases involving the former governors and ex-ministers was not less
than N772.2bn, with the anti-graft agency presently investigating the N81.6bn
allegedly looted in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty
Alleviation.
The paper recalled another $2.2bn meant for arms procurement
in support of the war against terrorists but which allegedly went missing
through money laundering, fund diversion and misappropriation by former
National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki; late media mogul, Raymond Dokpesi;
former governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa; and former Minister of
State for Finance, Bashir Yuguda among others.
While Dasuki was in the custody of the Department of State
Services in 2015, the EFCC arrested Dokpesi, Bafarawa, Yuguda and others.
They were all arrested after being indicted by a
presidential committee that investigated arms procurement under former
President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
The committee said about $2.2bn was diverted for purposes
other than arms procurement.
The newspaper listed the affected persons to include two
former Ekiti State governors, Kayode Fayemi and Ayo Fayose; former Zamfara
State governor, Bello Matawalle; two former Enugu State governors, Chimaroke
Nnamani and Sullivan Chime; former Nasarawa State governor, Abdullahi Adamu;
former Kano State governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso.
Others are former Rivers State governor, Peter Odili; former
Abia State governor, Theodore Orji; former Gombe State governor, Danjuma Goje;
former Sokoto State governor, Aliyu Wamako; former Bayelsa State governor,
Timipre Sylva; and former Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido.
Details of the fraud cases against other ex-governors and
ex-ministers are highlighted by the newspaper.
Meanwhile, the PUNCH gathered that EFCC Chairman Ola
Olukoyede has started reviewing the cases.
Olukoyede reportedly on assumption of office reappointed
investigators to take up the several probes without prejudice to the suspects’
social or political status.
“The chairman is reviewing all high profile cases, and he
has ordered the investigators not to treat anyone differently, especially politically
exposed persons, such as former governors and ministers, who were indicted for
money laundering,” a source is quoted.
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