EFCC arrests centre for HIV/AIDS director over missing N30m

By Isaac Job, Uyo

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Uyo Zonal Office has arrested the Director and Project Manager of the Akwa Ibom state Agency for HIV/AIDS Control, Dr. Nkereuwem Akpan for allegedly embezzling N30 million meant for outreach, sensitization, HIV testing/counselling and purchase of screening and confirmatory test equipment.

Dr. Akpan was arrested at the weekend following intelligence reports on how he allegedly misappropriated the said funds which were paid to the agency in November 2018 by the office of the secretary to the state government.

According to a statement by the anti-graft agency, investigation into the matter revealed that within the same month the money was released to the agency, Akpan single-handedly instructed that the sum of N24. 6 million be moved to the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) account of a company called Effective Medical Lab belonging to his accomplice (Peter Uduak).

Uduak, in his statement, admitted that he received the said money on the instruction of the main suspect and that he also withdrew same and handed over the cash to the suspect who gave him N100, 000 from the transaction.

“It was also discovered that immediately the money hit Uduak’s account, he withdrew the money between November 26 and November 28, 2018 and handed it over to Akpan in cash, who in turn deposited N22 million into his private account (Life Link Specialist Laboratory) domiciled in Access bank.

“Further investigation showed that less than N6 million was used by the suspect for the purposes for which the N30 million was released.

During interrogation, the suspect confessed that the essence of instructing the N24.6 million to be paid into his friend’s company account and later to his company’s account was to conceal the source of the money.