By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday confirmed that Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, is being investigated in connection with alleged diversion of N70 billion ($151.8m), part of the state’s resources.
The governor who failed to secure his re-election for a second term in the March 18 governorship election had asked the Chairman of the anti-corruption agency, Abdulrasheed Bawa to resign and allow the commission to extend its probe to the Presidency and outgoing ministers.
Matawalle will lose constitutional immunity on May 29 when he hands over power to his successor of the opposition PDP and will have no cover to stop his arrest of probe by the security agencies.
“I demand that the EFCC chair extend similar invitations to officers of the Presidency and members of the Federal Executive Council, which is the highest tier of government in the country,” Mr Matawalle had said.
Responding the the governor, the EFCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Osita Nwajah during a press briefing in Abuja confirmed that the outgoing governor is under probe.
“The real issue with Matawalle is that he is being investigated by the EFCC, over allegations of corruption, award of phantom contracts and diversion of over N70 billion, ” Nwajah stated.
Giving further details about the alleged corrupt activities of the governor, Mr Nwajah said, “the money which was sourced as loan from an old generation bank purportedly for the execution of projects across the local government areas of the state, was allegedly diverted by the governor through proxies and contractors who received payment for contracts that were not executed.”
He revealed that “more than 100 companies have received payments from the funds, with no evidence of service rendered to the state.”
The commission accused the governor of seeking the resignation of its chairman because he (Matawalle) is being probed.
He said contractors who are linked to the diversion of the state’s treasury under Matawalle have been invited and questioned over the alleged sleazy transactions, and have “made startling revelations on how they were allegedly compelled by the governor to return the funds received from the state coffers back to him through his aides after converting the same to United States dollars.”
The commission said the contractors “confirmed that they did not render any service to Zamafara State but were allegedly directed to convert the monies paid to them into United States Dollar and return to the State governor through some of his commissioners, notably the Commissioners in charge of Finance and Local Government Affairs.”
