Records of alleged massive withdrawals by
officials of the Adamawa State Government on which basis the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), said it froze some key accounts
belonging to the state has emerged.
The EFCC moved into Adamawa state and froze
the government’s bank account as a precautionary measure to safeguard
the state treasury amidst evidence of looting uncovered in the agency’s
ongoing investigation, according to reports.
The investigations showed that withdrawals were facilitated or made by key officials who have since been arrested and quizzed.
The officials involved include the secretary
to the state government, the state commissioner for finance, former
commissioner for local government (now commissioner for higher
education), the accountant general of the state and the permanent
secretary, ministry for local government.
Premium Times reports:
The Adamawa State
government had on Thursday raised the alarm that the federal government
had frozen all the state’s bank accounts.
The move came amidst
impeachment moves against Governor Murtala Nyako by the Peoples’
Democratic party, PDP-led members of the state’s House of Assembly.
The state’s lawmakers
accused Mr. Nyako and Bala Ngillari, the Deputy Governor, of siphoning
funds from the state’s treasury running into billions of Naira.
But the EFCC said its
investigation was triggered by petitions alleging massive looting of
the treasury by the governor and his cronies through an illegal
department called Special Programme and Project Units, SPPU, which
engaged in over invoicing and inflation of contract.
“In the course of
investigation, a critical analysis of the Joint State/Local Government
account reveals massive cash withdrawals,” a source at the commission
told PREMIUM TIMES.
According to the
source who did not want to be named because it was an ongoing
investigation, the Permanent Secretary of Local Governments in the state
made cash withdrawals of over N2 billion in 181 different transactions,
scattered in tranches of N3 million, N4 million, N8 million and N9
million per transaction from the State/Local Government account
domiciled with First Bank between 29th of August 2011 and 2012.
He also made similar
cash withdrawals amounting to over N500 million between March 6, 2008,
and March 4, 2011, from another Joint account domiciled in Keystone
Bank, the source added.
“Other officials of
the ministry who allegedly looted the Joint Account include Justina
Jari, a Principal Accountant with the ministry who made cash withdrawals
to the tune of N600 million from the Joint Account between October, 2009 and February, 2011.
“Another staff of the
ministry, Abdulhakeem Mohammed was also alleged to have withdrawn about
N3 billion from the account between February 2007 and May 2011. Two
other staff, Mercy Wanje and Jumai Salihu were also said to have made
withdrawals of N1 billion and N160 million from the account
respectively,” the source said.
“On a single day,
another staff called Haruna Hamali, a principal store officer made a
cash withdrawal of over N70 million from the same account,” he said.
“The withdrawals were
made and the money returned to top officials of the state government as
narrated and confirmed by the officials who made the withdrawals.
“The state officials were arrested in connection with the withdrawals and other ongoing investigations,” the source added.
Wilson Uwujaren, spokesman of the EFCC, confirmed the freeze order, but declined to make further comments.
Find full details of the withdrawals below.
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