EFCC probes how ecological funds were spent during the last PDP administration
Olabode Adaramola
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has commenced investigation into how the ecological funds disbursed to state governments during the immediate past administration of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, were spent.
National Wire learnt that the decision of the Anti- graft agency to investigate how much was disbursed against the backdrops of reports that the states that benefited from the ecological funds did not spend the funds judiciously for the purpose it was meant to be spent .
Further checks revealed that this reports surfaced at a recent meeting between President Muhammad Buhari and the 36 state governors where some of the governors especially those from the south east geo-political zone pleaded with the president to release money from the ecological fund to enable them tackle the ecological problems that bedevilled many communities in their states.
At the on set National Wire gathered that President Muhammad Buhari allegedly agreed and instructed that necessary machinery should be set in motion for the States to get the money but when a top official in the presidency who was privy to the disbursement during the erstwhile President Jonathan administration whispered this to the ears of President Buhari, he was said to have immediately have a rethink on his earlier decision .
President Buhari was said to have immediately directed that all the states to submit a report of how much was collected and how the money was disbursed from 2013 and 2015.
And unknown to these governors, the EFCC was given the mandate to carry out the investigation.
National Wire’s further investigation had indicated that some of the incumbent governors had obliged the Anti- graft agency with details leading to the investigation of some erstwhile government officials in the period under review .
Some of the commissioners for finance in that era were said to have been quizzed already by operatives of the EFCC at its Abuja Head office.
One of the finance commissioners from the North Central States was reported to have confessed that over N 2.7billion was received in the last month’s of the administration in his state but could not explain how the money was spent.
The commissioner in question was said to have been detained at the EFCC’s office over the weekend before being granted bail on a stringent condition.
