Thirteen former governors are starting the year on a frightening note as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is set to re-open cases of fraud against them.
An estimated N772.2bn is involved with as per money embezzled by ex-governors , the Punch reports.
The newspaper further reports that the anti-graft agency has however prioritized investigating the N81.6bn that was allegedly mismanaged in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.
Another update is $2.2bn which allegedly went missing through money laundering, fund diversion and misappropriation in recent times. About $2.2bn was allegedly diverted by a 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, and others.
EFCC’s case against Dasuki is the agency’s argument that the embezzled money was meant for arms procurement in support of the war against terrorists, but it was laundered, diverted, and completely mismanaged.
While Dasuki was in 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’s findings showed that about $2.2bn was diverted for purposes other than arms procurement.
Others fingered as benefitting from the alleged fraud 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.
Matawalle, who is currently serving as the Minister of Defence in the administration of President Bola Tinubu, is being probed for alleged N70bn money laundering; this is while Fayemi, who served as Minister of Solid Minerals Development in former President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet from November 11, 2015 to May 30, 2018, before resigning to contest the governorship election for his second term, is being investigated for an alleged N4bn fraud, while Fayose, a two-term governor of Ekiti State, is being investigated by the anti-graft agency for an alleged N6.9bn fraud.
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