EFCC probes alleged frauds in Anambra LGs

By Tony Edike
ENUGU—THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has commenced investigations into the finances of local governments in Anambra State, following series of petitions from the state alleging mismanagement of funds by the caretaker committees set up by Governor Peter Obi to oversee the affairs of the councils.
The petitions from Anambra State, said to have flooded the zonal office of the anti-graft agency in Enugu, according to sources, centered on fraud in most of the 21 local government areas, which had been under the caretaker administration since the inception of Obi’s administration.
One of such petitions to the EFCC, obtained by Vanguard, was written by 12 members of Njikoka Local Government Transition Committee, including four supervisors, who alleged that the Transition Committee Chairman, Dazza Udeozor, Head of Service, Dr. C.M. Afunugo, and Treasurer, Mr. Andy Orakwelu, perpetrated fraud running into millions of Naira through payment for unapproved and unexecuted projects, among others.
The 12 petitioners, who were surprisingly relieved of their appointments by Governor Obi in September, apparently for raising the fraud alarm in their petition to EFCC, dated June 8, 2012, said the looting of  Njikoka local government treasury “came to light during the oversight visit to the local government by Anambra State House of Assembly Committee on Political, Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters on Monday, April 14, 2012, based on very exacting questions posed to the trio of the Transition Chairman, the HOS and the Treasurer.”
Under the approval and supervision of the Transition Committee chairman, Mr. Udeozor, who was retained by Governor Obi after sacking the 12 members in September, the F and G approved a bill for the reactivation of borehole in Njikoka local government secretariat at the sum of N637,500 but the treasurer allegedly claimed  N1,900,000 as the amount spent on the project.
They alleged that public fund amounting to N1.3 million was not accounted for.
They also cited the Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, building project jointly funded by the local and state governments which was approved for N20 million but was fraudulently beefed up to N31 million without the knowledge of the F and G.
Culled: Vanguard