The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), has arrested two Benue State officials over their involvement in the over-the-counter withdrawal of N23 billion.
It was gathered that the two officials are a Director of Finance and Accounts in the Bureau of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Gbaigyo Emmanuel, and a cashier, in the Benue State Bureau for Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs,
Andoor Festus.
The suspicious withdrawals, according to EFCC documents, were made in cash over-the-counter from eight bank accounts operated by four agencies of the Benue State Government.
A senior official of the EFCC told newsmen that the withdrawals were made in such a manner “to evade the monitoring mechanism of law enforcement authorities”.
According to the documents, a total of N19.4billion was withdrawn between June 30, 2015 and March 2018, from three accounts belonging to the Benue State Bureau of Internal Service and Special Service.
The withdrawal was done by a cashier in bits of N10 million. “In a day, the same man withdrew N500million in a N10million per transaction model,” the senior EFCC official said.
The EFCC chief said when they commenced an investigation of the suspicious withdrawals of the public funds, the State Government “hurriedly sacked an Assistant Director of Finance, Agbo Omada, as part of its cover-up strategy.”.
“When we interrogated the cashier and the Director of Finance about the withdrawals, they said they were acting based on the directives of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance”, the official said.
He explained that when the agency “invited the Permanent Secretary, he told us that he was carrying out the directives of the governor of Benue State”.
The anti-graft chief said most of the monies were diverted under funny circumstances, and without any official documents to back them.
The EFCC chief further said, “What is even more surprising is the fact that these suspicious cash withdrawals are still ongoing even when the investigation is still in place”.
The State government were unable to respond to enquries regarding the arrest as at the time of filing this report.
