EFCC Pounces On Ortom, Probes ‘N22bn Fraud’

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has launched an investigation on governor of Benue, Samuel Ortom over the alleged N22 billion fraud.

This was contained in a report of an investigation which began in May 2016, but was only recently released.

Recall that eight lawmakers of the State House of Assembly, on Monday, served a notice of impeachment on the governor. The police had reportedly blocked 22 other lawmakers from attending plenary which was led by the impeached speaker.

According to The Punch, the anti graft agency is also investigating 21 members of the Benue State House of Assembly for allegedly diverting N375m meant for the procurement of vehicles that would be used for oversight functions.

The report revealed that the governor, between June 30, 2015 and March 2018, ordered the withdrawal of N21.3bn from four government’s accounts.

N19bn of the money was said to be meant for the payment of six security agencies addressing the herdsmen-farmers clashes.

But the EFCC is alleging that no lesser than N3bn of the money was paid to the security agencies, hence the investigation.

The report reads in part, “We investigated four bank accounts belonging to two Benue State Government’s agencies. The first agency is the Benue State Government House which has an account in UBA with number 1017348051 and another account in GTB with number 0027952907. These accounts received N1, 916, 635, 206 from the state’s allocation between June 30, 2015 and March 2018.

“The second government agency is the Bureau of Internal Affairs and Special Services. The agency has an account with UBA with number 1007540119 and a First Bank account with number 2023788057. Between the same period, the accounts were credited with N19, 468, 951, 590 from the Benue State allocation.

“Investigations revealed that N19 billion was withdrawn by one Oliver Ntom, a cashier. Sometimes, in a day, he would withdraw as high as N500 million by cashing several cheques worth N10 million each. The permanent secretary upon interrogation said anytime security agencies requested funds, he would approach Governor Ortom who would ask him to write a memo to that effect. The permanent secretary would write and the governor would approve the money.

“The permanent secretary said the funds are usually given to six security agencies. He said the highest that any security agency gets is N10m a month while the least any of the agencies gets is N5 million a month.

“He said after the money has been released, the governor usually orders that the memo be torn to pieces. It is important to note that if a total of N60 million is given to all the security agencies collectively every month as claimed by the permanent secretary, it cannot amount to half of N19 billion in three years.”