The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has disclosed that a serving state governor allegedly withdrew N60billion from the state’s treasury in six tranches under six years in office.
EFCC Chairman, Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa, agency made the disclosuresin the latest edition of its in-house magazine “EFCC Alert.”
The agency’s boss granted an interview to TVC, and titled same “Setting the records straight” in a column of the monthly e-magazine by its media section, where he elucidated.
He said: “Very soon, Nigerians are going to see some of the things that we are doing.
“I can tell you for free that the new Department of Intelligence that we have created is working wonders. They have come up with a lot of intelligence.
“In one of them, a governor in a North-Central state within the last six years (one individual) has withdrawn over N60 billion in cash.
“We are looking at all of that, and I assure you that at the end of all of our investigations, Nigerians are going to be briefed of what we are doing behind the scene on cybercrime, politically-exposed persons, as well as engaging government agencies to ensure that we have better processes and procedures on how to do government business.
“We are not setting out to be engaging with people on the pages of newspapers or press conferences.
“We are working hard trying to see what we can do behind the scenes [to eradicate corruption],” Bawa said.
He said contrary to the popular view that ‘corruption cases’ against former governors had been swept under the carpet, he said the commission was steadily on the cases.
Bawa said: “I can assure you that we are working (on them).
“We don’t want to talk about matters that are under investigation. Yes, we invited a former governor (from South-South) for interrogation.
“He was with us for two days and he has been released; investigation is ongoing, but we are being careful and cautious, so we won’t be accused of engaging in a media trial.”
Bawa said between 1999 and 2007, more than 50 former and serving governors were under alleged corruption-related investigation.
Five former governors have since been convicted, with higher courts overturning the sentencing of two; namely former Abia governor, Orji Kalu and Bala Ngilari, who briefly ran Adamawa state.
While the commission is seeking a fresh judicial approval to re-prosecute Kalu, two other former governors-Joshua Dariye of Plateau state and Reverend Jolly Nyame of Taraba state are currently serving various jail terms in Kuje Prisons, Abuja.
On pension, Bawa said: “The issue of pension fraud is something that is mind-boggling and we are looking at that.
“We recently held a sensitisation programme titled, “Eradication of Pension Fraud in Nigeria. So we are working to ensure that we have sanity within the system.” (Authority)
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