By Abimbola Ogunnaike
The Kogi State Government has denied that money was missing from the state treasury during the tenure of the immediate past governor of the state, Yaya Bello.
The state government categorically told the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to come clean on its prosecution of Bello, insisting that the funds of the state are not missing.
The state government, meanwhile, called on President Bola Tinubu to order a special probe into the commission’s activities in the state, maintaining that the state believes in transparency, accountability and probity in line with the trend from 2016.
Recall that the anti-graft agency on Thursday, 14 March, 2024, named Bello in an amended charge filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja.
The commission is accusing the former governor, alongside his nephew and current Chief of Staff, Alli Bello, and one Dauda Sulaiman of diverting N100 billion belonging to the state in September 2015.
Reacting to the charge in a statement on Friday, 15 March, 2024, the state Commissioner for Information, Kingsley Fanwo, described the amended charges as the handwork of some “political actors around the presidency” who are determined to tarnish the image of the former governor.
“We believe that this ignoble agenda is unknown to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who trusted those people with power with the hope that they will use it judiciously for the greatness of our nation. Unfortunately, they have decided to use the privileges given to them as tools for political vendetta
“The amended charges in which the name of the former governor was mentioned are false, frivolous, fictitious and far from the truth. They are cooked-up charges that signpost their desperation to call a dog a bad name in order to hang it. The intention was to sensationalise the whole scenario and promote a media war against the former governor and other officials of government.
“We have seen how low EFCC and its paymasters can go in order to pander to the political agenda of those afraid of the rising profile of Alh. Yahaya Bello,” the statement read in part.
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