Okorocha, Others under EFCC probe
Doosuur Iwambe, Abuja
Acting chairman of the Eonomic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Mr Ibrahim Magu has confirmed that it is investigating Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State and some other Nigerians.
Magu, who affirmed this while fielding questions from newsmen, said that Okorocha is among those that are being invested by the commission
According to the EFCC boss, the commission has to get to a certain level before it can disclose any information about an ongoing investigation
Asked if an investigation is ongoing regarding the governor, he responded, “definitely”.
“Of course, we are doing a couple of checks and investigations here and there. We are investigating almost everybody,” the EFCC boss added.
While stressing that the commission has to get to a certain level before it can disclose any information about an ongoing investigation, Magu explained that this was necessary to prevent any action that can jeopardise or interfere with the process of the inquiry.
According to him, Governor Okorocha is one of the many people being investigated by the commission.
The EFCC boss said although he was aware of reports of the investigation on the social media, the details the anti-graft agency has was different from what was in the public space.
He, however, declined to disclose it.
Magu is in the United Kingdom to meet with investigators assisting the Nigerian government in solving cases of money laundering and financial crimes.
Recently, Governor Okorocha gave an indication that he was under the spotlight of the EFCC, saying he is the most investigated governor in the country.
Daily Times recalls that the Commission’s zonal head for South East, Usman Imam during a briefing over the weekend disclosed that the state government used funds meant for workers during the just concluded elections.
Usman stated that the Commission’s operatives blocked accounts belonging to the state government in the build-up to the election, following a tip-off.
According to Usman, EFCC’s timely intervention saved the state over N5bn that would have been deployed for vote buying by the Okorocha’s administration.
He said: “About N7.9bn is what had been blocked, although with pressure, subsequently, about N2.5bn was released for salaries. On the whole, we have over N5bn of those funds blocked; we are following up to see what actually happened.
“Honestly, what we discovered was that within two days, N700m was withdrawn in cash; N200m on the first day and N500m on the second day and all these monies were disbursed in a manner that was honestly unpalatable.
“Distribution to school teachers; I don’t know, schools that you were not funding and you wake up on the eve of the election and withdrew N500m cash and start distributing N1000 each or so to teachers. Whatever that means, I don’t know.
“When we came in, we were able to save about seventy something millions of the funds that we discovered were not disbursed, we also blocked it. People are still answering questions as to who asked them to move those monies, monies that were blocked at the banks.
