A former Governor of Akwa Ibom State and incumbent Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, was on Friday arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
An EFCC official who spoke with our correspondent at about 7.20 pm Friday evening confirmed that the ex-governor was taken in by EFCC operatives at about 5.20 pm and is still being interrogated as at press time.
“Yes, it’s true. He was brought in at about 5.20 pm accompanied by a few aides and Rickey Tarfa.”
The source could however not confirm if Akpabio would be allowed to go this night, stating that it “depends on how the interrogation goes.”
The spokesperson for the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, could not be reached for confirmation as at press time.
The EFCC had begun investigation into alleged theft of N108.1 billion of Akwa Ibom funds by the former governor in June, following a petition forwarded to the commission by an Abuja-based lawyer and activist, Leo Ekpenyong.
Ekpenyong had on June 8 petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari and the EFCC, calling for Akpabio’s probe and accusing him of looting Akwa Ibom state treasury.
Ekpenyong was believed to have been summoned on Wednesday, June 17, to adopt his petition and provide more details to some of the allegations he made against Akpabio.
In a new petition to the EFCC dated June 22, and copied to Buhari and the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, Ekpenyong gave details of some of Akpabio’s alleged financial recklessness.
He alleged that between January and December 2014, the ex-governor colluded with two of his top aides to steal a whopping N108.1 billion from the state’s treasury.
Ekpenyong told the EFCC that the former Government House Permanent Secretary, Etekamba Umoren, and the former Accountant General of the state, Udo Isobara, colluded with Mr. Akpabio to steal the funds.
“Between January –December 2014, it is on record that the trio of Godswill Akpabio, Etekamba Umoren and Udo Isobara, made illegal but substantial withdrawals of cash from a designated state government-owned account with Zenith Bank with account number: 1010375881 amounting to N22.1 billion.
“It is worthy of note that reasons for such ungodly cash withdrawals against financial regulations and due process laws range between sundry use and unjustifiable expenditures by Godswill Akpabio and his numerous surrogates and proxies.
“For example, a whopping N18 billion was withdrawn fraudulently from the state FAAC account with the United Bank for Africa in trenches of N10 million and above by Mr. Isobara in a surreptitious manner to conceal their dishonest intention.”
Ekpenyong said Umoren, for assisting Akpabio retire billions of the stolen funds, was rewarded with an appointment as Government House chief of staff and now secretary to the state government under Udom Emmanuel’s administration.
The legal practitioner went on to state that over N50 billion of Akwa Ibom funds were spent by the former governor during the last general elections.
During the period under review, he said Akpabio also withdrew a whopping N18 billion from the state coffers under the guise of special services, reception of very important guests and sundry items.
“The cumulative aggregate of these monies stolen by Godswill Akpabio from the coffers of government as pocket money is the annual budget of some states in Nigeria put together,” the petition stated.
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