Press Release
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC,
on Thursday, March 12, 2015, arraigned a former Chairman and Chief Accounting Officer of
Hong Local Government Council, Adamawa State, Ibrahim Buba Gayus, before
Justice B. B Aliyu of the Federal High Court Yola, Adamawa State, on a 12-count
charge bordering on conspiracy, embezzlement, and diversion of public funds,
fraud and abuse of office to the tune of N41.1m (forty one million, one hundred
thousand naira).
Gayus allegedly collected N50m (fifty million
naira) agric loan on behalf of members of staff but instead, gave out less than
N10m (ten million naira) to them and diverted the remaining for personal use.
Investigations carried out by the EFCC,
revealed that Gayus fraudulently diverted the sum of N41.1million for his
personal use. It was also discovered that, the former council boss used his
office to withdraw N1.95m, which was supposed to be used to renovate the
council chambers
One of the charge reads:
“That you, Ibrahim Buba Gayus, being the
former chairman, and chief accounting officer of Hong Local Government Council,
Adamawa State and in such capacity sometimes between December 2009 and January
2010 in Hong Local Government Council, Adamawa State, within the jurisdiction
of this Court, Federal High Court of Nigeria, did transfer and spend
N19,000,000.00 (Nineteen Million Naira) funds made for Agric loan for Local
Government staff to another unapproved project of drilling machine and thereby
committed an offence punishable under Section 22(4) of the Corrupt Practices
and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.”
The accused person pleaded not guilty when the
charge was read to him.
In view of the plea of the accused, the prosecuting
counsel, Al’Qasim Ja’Afar, prayed the court to fix a date for trial while the
defence counsel, Onyi Ukaegbu, told the court that, he had a pending
application for the bail of the accused.
Justice Aliyu, after hearing from both counsel,
granted the accused person bail in the sum of N10m (ten million naira) and two
sureties who must submit N5m bond to the court for verification. The sureties
must be resident in Yola.
The case has been adjourned to May 4, 2015 for
hearing.
Wilson Uwujaren
Head, Media & Publicity
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