Posted by By GEOFFREY ANYANWU, Awka on
Former governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chris Ngige yesterday said he was neither arrested nor detained by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) but visited the commission to clear himself of allegations of misappropriation of local government funds during his tenure.
Former governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chris Ngige yesterday said he was neither arrested nor detained by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) but visited the commission to clear himself of allegations of misappropriation of local government funds during his tenure.
A former aide to former governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju, Mr. Bona Maduafokwa had petitioned the EFCC, accusing former governors of the state from 1999 till date, including Mr. Peter Obi of misappropriating allocations of the local governments in the state from the federal account.
Ngige, who spoke to newsmen on phone from Lagos said that against media reports that he was detained, he heard that there was a petition against him at EFCC and decided to check with the commission, adding that the petition was politically motivated.
He said, 'when I went to EFCC, they were asking me of the workings of government while I was in office and I was able to put them through, before then, the Accountant General had already cleared them on gray areas."
Ngige, however, accused Maduafokwa of vendetta, noting that he petitioned EFCC because he refused to give him the management of parks and markets which he requested for during his tenure.
But briefing newsmen yesterday in Awka, Maduafokwa dismissed Ngige's accusation, stressing that his petition was not against Ngige, but for EFCC to look into how local government funds were managed in the state from 1999 when Dr. Mbadinuju was governor to the present administration of Governor Obi.
He said, 'we did a petition to the EFCC to come to Anambra to investigate what has happened to the local government funds, money sent to the local government areas in Anambra from 1999, during the time of Mbadinuju to the time of Peter Obi, that's what we did."
Maduafokwa confirmed that he applied for the management of the markets and parks but denied it was not the reason for the petition to EFCC, stressing that throughout Ngige's regime there was no month he gave his (Maduafokwa) local government, Ihiala up to N8 million out of its alleged N90 to N100 million allocation.
'If one had been given prior information regarding this, I would have given you a copy of the petition; you will see that it is not a question of writing a petition against Ngige. It was a question of, because you need to start, even Peter Obi, what they are doing with local government fund is strange to me."
He however assured that he would fight until justice is done to the state by seeing that the two former governors and the present one account for the local government funds especially that of Ihiala local government.