Ex- Adamawa State Governor Murtala Nyako Arrested By EFCC
A former governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, who
returned to Nigeria after nearly a year on self-imposed exile, has been
detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Mr. Nyako was still at the commission’s office in Abuja by 5
p.m. Monday. He was said to have surrendered himself to the commission Monday
afternoon.
Mr. Nyako, who was impeached on July 16, 2014, was declared
wanted by the anti-graft agency on February 4.
The EFCC had declared Mr. Nyako and his son, AbdulAziz
Murtala Nyako, a retired naval officer, wanted for alleged criminal conspiracy,
stealing, abuse of office and money laundering.
The commission alleged massive looting of state funds by top
officials in Mr. Nyako’s government leading to the arrest of key officials in
the state including, the then Secretary to the State Government, the State
Commissioner for Finance, the Commissioner for Higher Education, the Accountant
General of the State and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry for Local
Government.
The EFCC, at the time, said its investigation was triggered
by petitions alleging massive looting of the treasury by the governor and his
cronies through an illegal department called Special Programme and Project
Units, SPPU.
“In the course of investigation, a critical analysis of the
Joint State/Local Government account reveals massive cash withdrawals,” a
source at the commission had told PREMIUM TIMES.
The Permanent Secretary of Local Governments was accused of
making cash withdrawals of over N2 billion in 181 different transactions,
scattered in tranches of N3 million, N4 million, N8 million and N9 million per
transaction from the State/Local Government account domiciled with First Bank between
29th of August 2011 and 2012.
He also allegedly made similar cash withdrawals amounting to
over N500 million between March 6, 2008, and March 4, 2011, from another Joint
account domiciled in Keystone Bank, the source added.
“Other officials of the ministry who allegedly looted the
Joint Account include Justina Jari, a Principal Accountant with the ministry
who made cash withdrawals to the tune of N600 million from the Joint Account
between October, 2009 and February, 2011.
“Another staff of the ministry, Abdulhakeem Mohammed was
also alleged to have withdrawn about N3 billion from the account between
February 2007 and May 2011. Two other staff, Mercy Wanje and Jumai Salihu were
also said to have made withdrawals of N1 billion and N160 million from the account
respectively,” the source said.
“On a single day, another staff called Haruna Hamali, a
principal store officer made a cash withdrawal of over N70 million from the
same account,” he said.
“The withdrawals were made and the money returned to top officials
of the state government as narrated and confirmed by the officials who made the
withdrawals.
“The state officials were arrested in connection with the
withdrawals and other ongoing investigations,” the EFCC official said at the
time.
Mr. Nyako left the country and only returned to Nigeria on
Saturday. Sources in the commission said the ex-governor may have reappeared
and reported himself to the commission, knowing that his game is up.
Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC’s spokesperson could not be reached as
at the time of filing this report. His mobile number was switched off.
No comments:
Post a Comment