Paris Club Refund: EFCC Traces N500m to Gov’s Account

One of the seven state governors be­ing probed over the alleged diversion of N19 billion from the London/Paris Clubs’ N522 billion re­fund to some states of the fed­eration has allegedly received N500 million from the money.
The money was traced to the governor’s accounts by the operatives of anti-corruption agency who are investigating the alleged fraud.
It was learnt that the EFCC traced and recovered the N500 million from an unnamed state governor from the Federal Gov­ernment’s N522billion refund from the Paris and London Clubs to the affected states.

President Muhammadu Bu­hari had directed the governors to use the money to clear the arrears of workers’ salaries and pensioners’ stipends.
But as soon as the moneyw as released, there were allega­tions that some governors had diverted the chunk of it.
In fact, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) was said to have re­ceived the sum of N19billion from which N500 million was paid to the governor as consultancy fee.
In the course of its investigation of how N19 billion was illegally de­ducted from the London-Paris Club debt refund, the sum of N500 mil­lion was found in the governor’s ac­count as payment for an undisclosed consultancy job.
It was further learnt that the sev­en governors under probe played prominent roles in the diversion into two accounts opened by the NGF.
According to reports, an EFCC source said that: “In spite of the foul cry by some governors, the EFCC has decided to conclude the ongo­ing probe of the N19 billion divert­ed from the loan refund.”
Already four persons have been arrested by the anti-graft agency, the source said, adding that:. “De­tectives have grilled four more sus­pects and retrieved bank details on how the funds were wired into some accounts.
“The operatives are trying to determine whether or not the gov­ernor is also one of the consultants engaged for advisory service by the NGF,” he said
Among the states that benefit­ted from the London/Paris Clubs’ refund are Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Riv­ers, Delta, Katsina, Kaduna, Lagos, Imo, Jigawa, Borno, Niger, Bauchi and Benue. Kano State and the Fed­eral Capital Territory (FCT) did not benefit from the fund.