Ex-Governors, Others Jittery As EFCC Reopens Cases

The renewed fight against corruption by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) seems as if it will not be ending soon as the anti-graft agencies have beamed their searchlight on ex-governors and ministers who have corruption cases hanging around their necks.

EFCC sources told LEADERSHIP that lawyers of some of the ex-governors are already preparing for renewed court cases as their clients have been notified of EFCC’s plans.

The sources said the EFCC chairman, Ola Olukoyede, is ready to review all abandoned cases, and had since his assumption of office reappointed investigators to take up the several probes.

Following a protest by members of the Zamfara Alternative Forum at the commission’s headquarters in Jabi, Abuja, EFCC’s acting director of public affairs, Wilson Uwujaren, had told journalists that all high-profile cases would be investigated.

Notable among the governors whose cases are currently under scrutiny are former governors of Enugu State, Chimaroke Nnamani and Sullivan Chime; former Ekiti State governors, Kayode Fayemi and Ayo Fayose; former Nasarawa State governor, Abdullahi Adamu; former Abia State governors, Theodore Orji and Orji Uzor Kalu; 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.

In Enugu, Nnamani is being investigated over an alleged N5.3 billion fraud, while 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. Diezani herself is under probe over several alleged money laundering cases running into several billions of naira and millions of dollars.

Former Govenor Fayemi is being investigated over an alleged N4 billion fraud while his successor Fayose is being investigated by the anti-graft agency for an alleged N6.9 billion fraud.

Former Nasarawa State governor Adamu is under probe for alleged N15 billion fraud.

In Abia, Orji is being investigated over alleged N551 billion money laundering charge, while Kalu is still been investigated for about N7billion.

Former Governor Goje is being investigated by the commission for an alleged N5 billion fraud; Wammako for allegedly diverting N15 billion; Sylva for alleged N19.2 billion money laundering, and Lamido for alleged N1.35 billion fraud.