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
saharareporters
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