Kogi threatens to sue EFCC over N20bn bailout funds
By The Kogi state government on Thursday threatened to sue the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over what it described as a deliberate attempt to malign the integrity of the governor over an alleged N20 billion salary bailout funds.
The commissioner of Information and Communication in the state, Kingsley Fanwo, disclosed this while briefing reporters at the Kogi Liaison Office in Abuja.
The anti-graft body had dragged the state government to court over the said amount of money it said was fixed in a deposit account at one of the commercial banks.
BusinessDay recalled that on Tuesday, the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court issued an order freezing the Kogi State Salary Bailout Account domiciled in Sterling Bank over a N20 billion loan obtained from the bank.
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Justice Tijjani Ringim, the presiding judge, held that the order would subsist pending the conclusion of an investigation or possible prosecution by the EFCC.
In its argument, the anti-graft agency had explained that the loan was meant to augment the payment of salary and running cost of the state.
It alleged that the state government had kept the money in an interest-yielding account with Sterling Bank.
The EFCC also claimed that as of April 1, 2021, the balance standing to the credit of the said fixed deposit account was N19.3 billion.
It added that it was still in the process of tracing what the sum of N666.6 billion – a shortfall of the said sum – was used for.
But reacting to the development, Fanwo described as false and malicious the claims by the anti-graft agency that the governor did not disburse the said bailout funds released by the Federal Government in 2019 for payment of salary arrears owed civil servants in the state.
He explained that the state government disbursed the said funds in October 2019.