Former Niger Delta Affairs
Minister, Godsday Orubebe, has been interrogated by the Independent Corrupt
Practices and other Related Ofeneces Commission (ICPC) in connection with an
alleged N605 million fraud.
The cash was withdrawn without
authorization from the Constituency Project account of the ministry by five
officials.
The ICPC has filed charges
against the Director of Finance and Account, Yusuf Agabi; Deputy Director of
Finance, Akpore Okeroghene; Director of
Finance, Abibu Ayinla; Deputy Director,
Accounts, Idowu Adewale and Deputy
Director, Accounts, Ngozi James.
The Nation reports that
although Justice Husseini Baba of the FCT High Court fixed September 16 for the
arraignment of the suspects, the ICPC intensified its investigation by inviting
Orubebe.
Orubebe was said to have spent
about two and a half hours on Monday with a team of investigators.
It was not immediately clear if
Orubebe was in any way connected with the alleged fraud or if he was being
prepared as a witness.
“In spite of the fact that we
have filed charges against five directors in the Ministry of Niger Delta
Affairs, the investigation into the fraud is open-ended.
“Certainly, we still have some
gaps to fill on the case because we are suspecting that there might be more
accomplices in the system. Orubebe was in charge of the ministry when the fraud
was perpetrated; we need to find out from him how things went wrong. Perhaps,
he may give more insights.
“What we did was to ask a team
of investigators to interact with the former Minister especially on the
accounting procedure and authorisation of funds in the ministry,” a source in
ICPC said.
A top official of the ICPC also
said: “Without prejudice to the ongoing court process, our operatives
interacted with Orubebe but we cannot give details.
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