The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has reopened money laundering cases involving ₦853.8 billion against 13 former governors and ministers.
The affected person’s include two former Ekiti state governors, Kayode Fayemi and Ayo Fayose; former Zamfara state governor, Bello Muhammad; two former Enugu state governors, Chimaroke Nnamani and Sullivan Chime; former Nasarawa state governor, Abdullahi Adamu; and former Kano state governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso.
Others are former Rivers state governor, Peter Odili; former Abia state governor, Theodore Orji; former Gombe state governor, Danjuma Goje; former Sokoto state governor, Aliyu Wamakko; former Bayelsa state governor, Timipre Sylva; and former Jigawa state governor, Sule Lamido.
While Muhammad, the current Minister of Defence in President Bola Tinubu administration, is being probed for alleged ₦70 billion money laundering.
Fayemi, who served as Minister of Solid Minerals Development in former President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet from November 11, 2015 to May 30, 2018, before resigning to contest the governorship election for his second term, is being investigated for an alleged ₦4 billion fraud.
Fayose, a two-term Ekiti state governor, is being investigated by the anti-graft agency for an alleged ₦6.9 billion fraud.
Nnamani is being probed for an alleged ₦5.3 billion fraud; while Chime is being investigated over an alleged ₦450 million campaign fraud as part of the ₦23 billion allegedly shared by a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
The current National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who was Nasarawa state governor, Adamu is under probe for alleged ₦15 billion fraud.
The National Leader of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), and former governor of Kano state, Kwakwanso is being probed for alleged non-remittance of ₦10 billion pension fund.
Orji is being investigated over alleged ₦551 billion money laundering; while Odili is similarly being probed for alleged ₦100 billion fraud.
However, Odili obtained an order of perpetual injunction from a Federal High Court in March 2008, to restrain the EFCC and other security agencies from probing him. Though the order has not been vacated to date, it is not yet clear how the probe of the ex-Rivers state governor will be handled.
Goje is being probed by the commission for an alleged ₦5 billion fraud; Wammako is being investigated for allegedly diverting ₦15 billion; Sylva, a former Minister of State for Petroleum under Buhari, is under probe for alleged ₦19.2 billion money laundering; while Lamido is being investigated over an alleged ₦1.35 billion fraud.
Diezani is being probed over several alleged money laundering cases running into several billions of naira and millions of dollars.
