By Auwal Mohammed
Gombe (Nigeria) — Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Head of operations Mr. Aminu Ado Aliyu has said that the Commission is still investigating the over N388 million 2015 election campaign funds for the State involving some politicians and state government officials.
The EFCC head of operations stated this while fielding questions from Journalist shortly after briefing newsmen over achievements made by the Commission’s zonal office in the last seven months, where he stated that about 191 suspects were arrested over various petitions received.
He also said from January to July the agency in the course of investigation has recovered the sum of N79,074,743.53 in draft and cash of N31,745,280 summing up to N110, 820,023.53 from cases under investigation”.
He said “the cases were under investigation and some of the investigations would soon be completed after which the press will be briefed; but for now, the Commission does not want to rush to the press and at the end, the indicted persons are not guilty,”
Concerning the investigations started last year, the Head of Operations explained that the investigation was on and very soon, it will get to the politicians. “If you observed, we have been inviting some of the various security heads that were on ground during the elections,” Aminu Ado Aliyu stated.
The Zonal Office had sometimes last year said it detained the Accountant of the Government House Gombe, Mohammed Balbaya over N388 million 2015 election campaign funds for the State which was intended to compromise the results in favour of the then ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
According to the Head of Public Affairs of the Commission’s zonal office in a press statement made available to Journalists last year, Mohammed Balbaya was interrogated over his role in the N338million campaign fund sent to the state.
He said, Mr. Balbaya told investigators that he collected the sum in cash from an official of Fidelity bank in the state based on the directive of Senator Saidu Umar Kumo, the Director-General of Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo’s re-election campaign organization during the 2015 election.
According to the investigation, Mr. Balbaya said he contacted the Permanent Secretary and Principal Private Secretary to the Governor of the state, Sani Jauro who directed him to share the money to beneficiaries. He however denied deriving personal benefit from the process.
He said, though Mr. Balbaya did not disclose who the beneficiaries of the money were and the amount each individual or group collected from him, he however gave the EFCC useful information.
