KOGI State Governor Yahaya Bello has been fingered to be the North Central governor who withdrew N60bn cash from the state coffers.
An investigation by SaharaReporters showed that Yahaya Bello of Kogi State is the governor whom the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had alleged withdrew cash amounting to N60 billion from state cofferes in six years.
The EFCC had accused one of the governors from North Central of the huge sum withdrawal.
The anti-graft agency had, about a week ago, accused a serving Nigerian governor of having allegedly withdrawn N60 billion from his state’s purse.
The EFCC, however, did not disclose the identity of the governor, but said he was from the North Central region of the country.
Abdulrasheed Bawa, the Chairman of the EFCC had said the agency was investigating a serving state governor who had withdrawn more than N60 billion ($146 million) in cash since 2015.
In the latest edition of its in-house magazine called “EFCC Alert”, Bawa was quoted to have said that Nigerians would soon hear more about the developing sleaze story.
“Very soon, Nigerians are going to see some of the things that we are doing. I can tell you for free that the new Department of Intelligence that we have created is working wonders. They have come up with a lot of intelligence.
“In one of them, a governor in a North-Central state within the last six years (one individual) has withdrawn over N60 billion in cash.
“We are looking at all of that, and I assure you that at the end of all of our investigations, Nigerians are going to be briefed of what we are doing behind the scene on cybercrime, politically-exposed persons, as well as engaging government agencies to ensure that we have better processes and procedures on how to do government business.
“We are not setting out to be engaging with people on the pages of newspapers or press conferences. We are working hard trying to see what we can do behind the scenes (to eradicate corruption),” Bawa had said.
However, SaharaReporters’ investigation disclosed that the governor accused of withdrawing N60 billion cash from his state’s purse is Yahaya Bello.
Intelligence and court documents exclusively obtained by SaharaReporters, confirmed that the governor is Yahaya Bello.
The amount involved is said to be N78 billion at the end of the special investigation carried out by the EFCC’s newly created Department of Intelligence.
