×
  • News - North Central - Kogi
  • Updated: October 18, 2021

N20bn Bailout Fund: Kogi Government Challenges EFCC To Make Findings Public 

N20bn Bailout Fund: Kogi Government Challenges EFCC To Make

Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi

The Kogi State Government has dared the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to make public, report of its investigations on the purported N20 billion bailout fund fraud.

The EFCC in August,  had alleged that the N19.3 billion Kogi bailout fund domiciled in a Bank, had been partly misappropriated and the state account frozen on orders of a Lagos High Court

But the EFCC on Friday, withdrew its suit, seeking forfeiture of the N20 billion bailout fund.

However, Kogi government had kicked against the withdrawal by the EFCC,  charging the anti-graft body to make its findings on the fund public.

In a statement on Sunday by the Commissioner for Information, Mr Kingsley Fanwo, the state government said the EFCC despite the withdrawal, should be able to provide facts of its investigations.

He also urged Nigerians to ask the EFCC in whose custody it found a part of the bailout fund said to have been dissipated.

Fanwo insisted that the alleged sum of N19.3 billion which the Bank had undertaken to the EFCC to transfer to the Central Bank of Nigeria,  does not belong to the Kogi government, and that the state did not enter into any agreement, either with the Bank or the EFCC, to return any bailout fund to the CBN as being portrayed.

"It is our belief that the withdrawal of the suit by the EFCC without informing the Court of the facts,  is a deliberate and face-saving effort by the commission,    all in a bid to ‘nail’ at all cost, the Kogi government and tarnish its image,"Fanwo said.

He said the EFCC violated an earlier order of the court, as it failed to report its findings to the court, rather it unceremoniously withdrew the suit, without facts of its investigation to the court and the public.

According to him, residents of Kogi and indeed Nigerians at large, should rather ask the EFCC to publish on its official platforms,  the report of its investigation as to the ownership of the said sum of N19,333,333,333.36,  and the whereabouts of the sum of N666,666,666.64, which they alleged had been disbursed.

The commissioner further said: “Nigerians should further ask the EFCC whether a commercial bank can simply undertake to transfer a customer’s money from the customers’ account without the order of any court mandating such transfer or a forfeiture?

“Nigerians also deserve to know what becomes of the criminal allegation that the EFCC made,  when it informed the Federal High Court that the sum of N666,666,666.64  out of the N20 billion bailout loan had been dissipated and that same was being traced

Nigerians will want to know if the EFCC has found the money, if so, in whose custody was it found? Have charges been preferred against the custodian of the said funds?

”Or has the EFCC also abandoned that chase? Nigerians deserve to know the truth.

“We have as of October 2019,  fully disbursed our bailout funds and are already religiously repaying the loan to the Bank,” he clarified.

The government spokesman said that concealing these inalienable facts of the matter would be misleading and unethical.

“Finally, while we reserve all our legal rights against the EFCC, we reiterate our demand for an unreserved apology from the EFCC as contained in our letter to the Chairman of the EFCC on  Sept. 6.

“We hope the EFCC will honour the said demand to regain the trust of Nigerians,” Fanwo said.

He disclosed that the Kogi government had, as revealed in freshly published documents, sought further clarifications from the Bank to drive home its innocence in the matter.

The commissioner said:  “Buoyed by the strength of our innocence, the Kogi government on Oct. 4, wrote to the Bank, seeking further clarifications on the contentious account. The Bank did not only reinforce their earlier stance that the account is a Mirror Account; it also made it unequivocally clear that the Kogi government has nothing to do with the opening or operation of the account.

All of these facts are in their reply received by the Kogi government on October 5.

“The state government again urges the commission to tender public apology to it and refrain from measures that can further damage the image of the nation,”  Fanwo said.

Related Topics

Join our Telegram platform to get news update Join Now

0 Comment(s)

See this post in...

Notice

We have selected third parties to use cookies for technical purposes as specified in the Cookie Policy. Use the “Accept All” button to consent or “Customize” button to set your cookie tracking settings