Alleged N108bn Fraud: Ex-Governor, Senator Akpabio in EFCC custody
Adetokunbo Fakeye
Nigeria anti-graft agency, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has arrested the immediate past Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr Godswill Akpabio.
An EFCC source informed the ex-Governor and now Senate Minority Leader was taken into the agency custody at about 17:20hrs on Friday.
Senator Akpabio according to our source was arrested over alleged misappropriation of N108bn while in office as governor.
The EFCC had begun investigation into alleged theft of N108.1 billion of Akwa Ibom funds by the former governor in June, following a petition forwarded to the commission by an Abuja-based lawyer and activist, Leo Ekpenyong.
Ekpenyong had on June 8 petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari and the EFCC, calling for Akpabio’s probe, accusing him of looting Akwa Ibom state treasury.
The petitioner was believed to have been summoned on Wednesday, June 17, to write statement in respect of his petition.
An EFCC source said he submitted another revealing petition after his invitation where he alleged Akpabio that, between January and December 2014, the ex-governor colluded with two of his top aides to steal a whopping N108.1 billion from the state’s treasury.
He also told the team handling the case through the petition that the former Government House Permanent Secretary, Etekamba Umoren, and the former Accountant General of the state, Udo Isobara, conspired with Mr. Akpabio to steal the alleged funds.
Ekpeyong gave a details that, between January and December 2014, it is on record that the trio of Godswill Akpabio, Etekamba Umoren and Udo Isobara, made illegal but substantial withdrawals of cash from a designated state government-owned account at Zenith Bank with account number: 1010375881 amounting to N22.1 billion.
He submitted further that, reasons for such ungodly cash withdrawals against financial regulations and due process laws range between sundry use and unjustifiable expenditures by Godswill Akpabio and his numerous surrogates and proxies.
“For example, a whopping N18 billion was withdrawn fraudulently from the state FAAC account with the United Bank for Africa in trenches of N10 million and above by Mr. Isobara in a surreptitious manner to conceal their dishonest intention”, he stated.
He added that, Umoren, for assisting Akpabio to retire billions of the stolen funds, was rewarded with an appointment as Government House chief of staff and now secretary to the state government under Udom Emmanuel’s administration.
The legal practitioner went on to state that over N50 billion of Akwa Ibom funds were spent by the former governor during the last general elections.
During the period under review, he said Akpabio also withdrew a whopping N18 billion from the state coffers under the guise of special services, reception of very important guests and sundry items.
“The cumulative aggregate of these monies stolen by Godswill Akpabio from the coffers of government as pocket money is the annual budget of some states in Nigeria put together,” the petition stated.