The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested several key officials of the Adamawa State government, including the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and a serving commissioner, in connection with the state\u2019s frozen accounts.<\/p>\n
Our source within the commission explained that the action was not a political vendetta but to halt the ongoing looting of the state treasury for which it has evidence gathered in a current investigation.<\/p>\n
That investigation, according to the source, began from a petition from within the state which alleged massive looting by Governor Murtala Nyako and people close to him.<\/p>\n
Although the EFCC did not make the petition available to SaharaReporters, the source said the matter involved an illegal department called Special Programme and Project Units (SPPU) which was accused of over-invoicing and contract-inflation.<\/p>\n
Our source that the investigation has so far included the questioning and arrest of several key officials such as 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.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cIn the course of investigation, a critical analysis of the Joint State\/Local Government account reveals massive cash withdrawals. \u00a0The Permanent Secretary of Local Governments made cash withdrawals of over N2billion in 181 different transactions, scattered in tranches of\u00a0N3m, N4m, N8m\u00a0and\u00a0N9m\u00a0per transaction from the State\/Local Government account domiciled with First Bank\u00a0 between 29th of August 2011 and 2012. He made similar cash withdrawals amounting to over\u00a0N500 million\u00a0between March 6, 2008 and March 4, 2011 from another Joint account domiciled in Keystone Bank,\u201d the source revealed.<\/p>\n
It was also learned that 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\u00a0N600 million\u00a0from the Joint Account between October,\u00a0 2009 and February, 2011. Another member of staff of the ministry, Abdulhakeem Mohammed, was also alleged to have withdrawn about\u00a0N3 billion\u00a0from the account between February, 2007 and May, 2011.<\/p>\n
Two other staff, Mercy Wanje and Jumai Salihu were respectively alleged to have made withdrawals of\u00a0N1 billion\u00a0and\u00a0N160 million\u00a0from the account as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn a single day, another staff called Haruna Hamali, a principal store officer made a cash withdrawal of over N70 million from the same account,\u2019 the source said, adding that in addition to confirming those withdrawals, the interrogated officials also confirmed that the money was returned to top officials of the state government.<\/p>\n
It was on account of those developments and other ongoing investigations that the state officials were arrested, the source concluded.<\/p>\n
Contacted, the spokesman of the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed the freeze order, but declined to comment on specifics.<\/p>\n
The allegations of looting as well as revelations of arrests come on the heels of yesterday\u2019s filing of impeachment motion by the Adamawa House of Assembly against the governor and his deputy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe swift action of the EFCC in this matter is commendable,\u201d said a newspaper columnist.<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested several key officials of the Adamawa State government, including the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and a serving commissioner, in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n