A former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel, has been arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over alleged N700 billion fraud.
It was gathered that the former governor was taken into custody shortly after he arrived at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday around 12:30 pm.
Emmanuel was at the EFCC headquarters to honour an invitation over the allegation of money laundering, diversion of funds and stealing preferred against him by Network Against Corruption and Trafficking, a civil society organisation.
Sources within the EFCC said the petitioner alleged that the former governor received N3 trillion from the Federation Account in eight years but left a debt profile of N500 billion and unpaid ongoing projects worth N300 billion in Akwa Ibom State.
He was also alleged to be unable to account for N700 billion.
The petitioner claimed that it has audited financial records of the state where it discovered alleged embezzlement of funds under the administration of Emmanuel.
It was further revealed that investigations uncovered the withdrawal of N31 billion in cash from a single account named “Office of the Governor.”
The transactions were said to have taken place between 2019 and 2023.
There was no official statement issued about the arrest by the anti-graft agency.
EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale, could not be reached for comments as calls to his line indicated that it was switched off at the time of filing this report.
