ICPC ‘takes Godsday Orubebe to court for alleged N605m fraud’

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The cash was withdrawn without authorization from the Constituency Project account of the ministry by five officials.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.