EFCC Receives Petition To Probe Security Vote In Akwa Ibom

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has received a petition to probe the Security Vote under the immediate-past governor of Akwa Ibom State, Emmanuel Udom, over alleged mismanagement of N700bn and other allocations.

The petition was written by an anti-graft organisation, the Network Against Corruption and Trafficking (NACAT), and submitted to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC ) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related crimes Commission (ICPC), calling for thorough investigation of the tenure of the former governor.

The group, in the petition sighted by LEADERSHIP and signed by its operational manager, Stanley Ugabe, alleged that the former governor mismanaged state funds, noting that “if immediate past governors like Ifeanyi Okowa and Yahaya Bello can be invited, probed and facing prosecution, Udom should not be exempted to come and give accounts of our allegations against him.”

In the petition, the group alleged that in the eight years tenure of the former governor, about N700 billion security vote remained unaccounted for based on its investigation.

While listing some of the ways monies were spent, the group said under a suspicious payment for “operational expenses for Operation Thunder” the Akwa Ibom government paid out a total of N360,000,000 from the office of the governor AKSG Zenith Bank account number 1014317094.

Also, the group called the attention of the EFCC and the ICPC to investigate 1,521 withdrawals of a total of N1,160,000,000 by a single individual under the tenure of Udom.

It would be recalled that former Delta State governor, Okowa is currently been investigated for the alleged diversion of N1.3trn.

The N1.3trn represents the 13 per cent derivation fund from the federation account between 2015 and 2023.

Also, former Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello,
is facing corruption charges stemming from his activities during his eight-year tenure in office.

The former Kogi governor, alongside Umar Oricha and Abdulsalami Hudu, were being prosecuted as 1st to 3rd defendants, respectively, in a fresh N110bn 16-count charge instituted against them by the EFCC.