The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), last Sunday, invited seven officials of Esan North East Local Government Area of Edo State for questioning over allegations of fraudulent practices in the council.
The officials were alleged to have connived with the council chairman, Augustine Okoibhole to defraud the council of the sum of N144 million realised as internally generated revenue in the past 16 months.
Those invited for questioning include officials in the cash office, EXCO Records Department, procurement office, health department, revenue, and works departments.
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Nigeris Xpress gathered that the head of works department of the council was first invited last Wednesday but was released by the anti-graft agency when the allegation of corruption could not be traced to him.
The other seven were said to have been invited after and some of them granted bail on Friday.
A source in the council informed our correspondent that the personnel invited from the procurement office, a female, was immediately granted bail by the commission because she was barely two months old in the council.
The spokesperson for EFCC said the Commission regularly invited people for questioning, adding that it was a normal routine in the commission.
“We invite people from everywhere all the time for interrogation and we always make public anybody who is with us. We invite people from all sectors all the time,” he said.
Recall that nine Councillors from the council had petitioned the Edo State government, accusing the chairman of financial recklessness.
The Councillors also accused the chairman of operating multiple accounts in the name of the council as against a single account policy of the state and Federal Government.
They alleged that the chairman had not been able to account for N13,348,000 remitted to the account of the council by the revenue verification committee just as they alleged that the sum of N144,000,000 realised as IGR for the past 16 months had not been accounted for.
The aggrieved councillors also claimed that the chairman had not been able to account for the N116,350,894 Paris Club refund.
But reacting to the allegations, Okoibhole said “The new Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit directive gives us room to operate three accounts and that is what we are doing; we are operating three accounts.
On not being able account for IGR, he said, “We have been paying salaries, we are not owing workers’ salaries, I have done many projects, I have built a livestock market. I have done drainage. All the money did not come from my personal pocket. What we have done is even far more than N144m. My wage bill monthly is over N30m and for the last 25 months, I have paid salaries, I have debts that we are owing on rented properties and several other spendings.”
He said he acted as directed by the state governor Godwin Obaseki to use the Paris Club refund to pay salary arrears.
“We were owing eight months and now we are owing only two and half months which means I have paid five and a half months,” he said.
