The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested
the immediate past Governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, over an alleged
scam involving N5bn.
It was learnt that Aliyu, who served between 2007 and 2015,
was arrested by the anti-graft agency on Tuesday after he was invited by the
commission.
The suspect was, however, detained after interrogation,
pending further investigation.
A source at the EFCC said, “We invited former Governor Aliyu
to our office on Tuesday and he has been in our custody since then.
“He was invited following an investigation into a scam
involving about N5bn.”
When contacted on the telephone, the spokesman for the EFCC,
Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed that Aliyu was in the custody of the commission
but failed to give more details.
“The former governor was invited by the commission and he is
still in our custody,” Uwujaren said.
It will be recalled that the current Governor of Niger
State, Alhaji Abubakar Bello, as well as the members of the Niger State House
of Assembly, had called for a probe of Aliyu’s administration which they
described as fraudulent.
Bello said there were several questionable transactions the
former administration must account for.
The discrepancies, according to him, were discovered by the
financial management committee set up by his administration, lamenting that one
of such discrepancies was discovered in the state and local government joint
account where a massive fraud was allegedly perpetrated.
Bello said, “We instituted a financial management committee
to look at all major financial transactions of the state and local governments
from May 2007 to May 2015. The committee has made substantial progress
and the findings are quite revealing.
“A review of the operations of some of the major bank
accounts of the state and the Local Government Joint Accounts Allocation
Committee over the last eight years revealed some despicable patterns such as
huge cash withdrawals by government officials, private individuals and PDP
officials and members.
“For example, an examination of only two bank accounts of
Government House shows more than N70bn cash withdrawals by a few officials who
must explain the purpose for which the withdrawals were made.
The operation of
the joint account was characterised by diversions and a misapplication of huge
funds especially those paid for Ward Development Projects and 10km roads
projects.
“For instance, out of the total sum of over N11bn paid to
the accounts of Ward Development Projects, the relevant officials of the
ministry of local government could not account for N2.86bn, while N613m was
spent on ‘ghost’ vehicles and N675.50m was said to be lent to Ministry of
Finance where the funds cannot be traced.”
By Eniola Akinkuotu
