The arrest of former governor of Akwa Ibom State Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, by the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Friday was definitely due to his playing hide and seek with the fraud busters. Akpabio was first invited to the EFCC on 27th of August before his dramatic car accident near Bolingo Hotel junction in Abuja, after which he hurriedly left the country abroad for medical check up. On returning to the country after more than a week stay in UK and the USA, he decided to shun the anti-graft agency until last Friday, where he was picked up by operatives of the agency. Akpabio got the anti-graft agency angry for not turning up on the said date after he had been duly served with the summons to appear and answer questions relating to series of petitions written against him bordering on the abuse of office, diversion of funds and abuse of public office. The petitions were sent in by an Abuja-based lawyer, Leo Ekpenyong and native of the state and Oro Youth Movement, one of the socio-political groups in the state, alleging massive looting of Akwa Ibom State funds during his tenure as governor of Akwa Ibom. In order to bring the former governor to justice, the EFCC summoned and interrogated top officials of the administration who worked with him, including the former Finance Commissioner, who is now a Senator, like Akpabio. However, Akpabio, who was summoned by the agency to appear on August 27, 2015, did not do so having moved against the invitation of the EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, by the Senate over unremitted funds. Akpabio had written a letter to the Senate leadership disassociating himself and other PDP members in the Senate from supporting the probe of Lamorde, claiming that it was ‘inappropriate’ at this time. Based on that subtle support for the EFCC boss, he jetted out of the country a few days after not responding to the summon by the agency. However, it is believed that most of the officials who served under Akpabio who were invited by the EFCC to state what they knew about the diversion of funds of the state, made incriminating remarks against the former governor, who is now the Minority Leader in the Senate. It was learnt that the EFCC moved against him apparently because of his initial refusal to honour its invitation and the statements made by officials of his administration, claiming that it was the governor who approved whatever expenditure they incurred while in office and that they had no reason to disobey him. When Akpabio was taken in on Friday, he was immediately interrogated by a crack team of EFCC operatives, and granted bail at about 10pm with a directive to report back on Saturday morning after taking his statement, only for him to turn the whole excercise to a theatrics with his media hype on leaving the EFCC office in Abuja Friday night. An EFCC operative said Akpabio was warned to desist from his inordinate media show else the anti-graft agency would be forced to bring all the implicating findings against him to the public. Mr. Ekpenyong had on June 8 petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari and the EFCC, calling for Mr. Akpabio’s probe and accusing him of looting Akwa Ibom money. To confirm the authenticity of the petition against Akpabio, the EFCC had summoned the author, Mr. Ekpenyong, on June 17, to adopt his petition and provide more details to some of the allegations he made against Mr. Akpabio. Although the former governor denied all the allegations against him, the evidences provided by the petitioners seem to be too weighty to be ignored as canvassed by Akpabio. Make sure to leave a comment, and share when through with reading
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