From Fred Itua, Abuja
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has commenced the prosecution of former governors, ministers and presidential aides who served in the administrations of Presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari.
The long legal battle commenced, yesterday, with the arraignment of a former governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano, who’s being prosecuted by the anti-graft agency.
The anti-graft agency has already revealed that 13 former governors and some former ministers were already facing fresh probes. The funds being investigated are over N853.8 billion.
Reports said the amount at stake in the high-profile cases involving the former governors and ex-ministers was not less than N772.2 billion.
The affected persons 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 and 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, is being probed for alleged N70 billion money laundering; 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 N4 billion fraud, while Fayose, a two-term governor of Ekiti State, is being investigated by the anti-graft agency for an alleged N6.9 billion fraud.
Nnamani is being probed for an alleged N5.3 billion fraud; Chime is being investigated over an alleged N450 million campaign fraud as part of the N23 billion allegedly shared by a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, while Adamu is under probe for alleged N15 billion fraud.
Kwakwanso is being probed for alleged non-remittance of N10 pension fund; Orji is being investigated over alleged N551 billion money laundering, while Odili is similarly being probed for alleged N100 billion fraud. It is not yet clear how the probe of the ex-Rivers State governor will be handled as he obtained an order of perpetual injunction restraining the EFCC and other security agencies from the Federal High Court in March 2008, which has not been vacated to date.
Goje is being probed by the commission for an alleged N5 billion fraud; Wammako is being investigated for allegedly diverting N15 billion; Sylva, a former Minister of State for Petroleum under Buhari, is under probe for alleged N19.2 billion money laundering, while Lamido is being investigated over an alleged N1.35 billion fraud.
Olu Agunloye (power, mines and steel), is being probed over an alleged $6 billion fraud on the Mambilla Power Project; and Sadiya Umar-Farouk (humanitarian affairs), over an alleged N37.1 billion fraud. Agunloye and Umar-Farouq served under former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari, respectively.
The EFCC is probing both former ministers and arraigned Agunloye, who was remanded in a custodial centre pending the perfection of his N50 million bail.
Sources in APC told Daily Sun that in the coming weeks, more former governors and ministers, whose cases have already been concluded, will be taken to court for prosecution. The source said the anti-graft agency has the backing of President Bola Tinubu to recover billions of naira looted by former governors and ex-ministers, some of whom are his close allies. A source said some senior lawyers have been contracted to handle the prosecution to avoid any prosecutorial errors.
He said: “Obiano was charged to court today (yesterday). Many investigations on former governors and ex-ministers have been concluded. Very soon, we’ll see their prosecution. It is no longer business as usual. The agency is serious about recovering billions of naira looted by these former governors and they’ll face justice soon. We’re determined to jail those found guilty and ensure that they don’t get away like it used to be.
“Former governors, who served from 1999 and former ministers who served since the time of President Goodluck Jonathan, will face justice. Their investigations were not properly handled and EFCC has reopened those cases.”