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Coordinator of the Police Equipment Fund (PEF), Chief Kenny Martins, has been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged mismanagement of N50 billion.
Coordinator of the Police Equipment Fund (PEF), Chief Kenny Martins, has been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged mismanagement of N50 billion. Also arrested by the EFCC operatives were Martin's deputy, Prince Ibrahim Dumuje and Dr Yaro Gella, the third signatory to the PEF account.
The PEF chiefs had earlier, in April, been guests of the anti-graft commission but sources told Daily Sun on Wednesday that their fresh arrest followed petitions written against them by Integrity International Nigeria and His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar. The Sultan was chairman PEF Foundation until he resigned recently.
According to the sources, Martins and his lieutenants were being detained at the operations unit of the EFCC in Abuja.
When contacted, Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Mr Femi Babafemi confirmed the arrest.
Babafemi added that the suspects were already making statements to officials of the commission on the allegations against them.
Only recently, the House of Representatives probe panel, which investigated the fraud allegedly perpetrated by the Kenny Martins-led Presidential Committee on Police Equipment Fund (PCPEF), made public its findings, revealing that over N2 billion was spent for purposes other than equipping the police force.
The 29-page report signed by the chairman, Public Petitions Committee of House of Representatives, Hon. C. I. D. Maduabum, explained that out of the embezzled money, Chief Martins, Dumuje and Dr Gella were in possession of over N1.5 billion .
Against this backdrop, the committee has recommended that the trio should refund the money just as it recommended that 'government, in the interim, freeze the account of the Presidential Committee on Police Equipment Fund, Police Equipment Foundation and order a thorough audit of these accounts."
The breakdown of the money, which the committee recommended to be refunded by Martins, Dumuje and Dr. Gella to the police included 'the sum of N227.091,581 fraudulently taken in cash from N7.74 billion public funds lodged in the account of the Presidential Committee on Police Equipment Fund."
Other refunds the panel recommended the trio should make were the N774 million aid to NIGEL-STAG, from the fund 'for the benefit of Chief Kenny Martins, Ibrahim Dumuje and Mrs Dora Agharite (NIGERL-STAG)… the sum of N59 million illegally withdrawn from the account of the PCPEF for the benefit of Chief Kenny Martins, Ibrahim Dumuje and Mrs Dora Agharite (NIGERLSTAG)" as well as 'the sum of N450 million illegally withdrawn for the benefit of the Police Equipment Foundation, a private institution under the control of Chief Martins, Dumuje and Dr. Gella" totaling N1,510,091,581."
The committee also recommended that 'all other sums of money paid to various individuals, organizations and corporate bodies for services not rendered by them be refunded," adding, 'the security agencies should further investigate the use of waivers granted for importation of vehicles as the committee could not reach conclusion on it."
The trio of Martins, Dumuje and Mr Dora Agharite were recommended to be held responsible 'for unlawfully and fraudulently procuring Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) documents making themselves directors of NIGERLSTAG when the resolution upon which they became directors was signed by Evangelist Joseph Agharite five months after his death.
'These three persons should not benefit from their own wrongs. Consequently, we recommend that the CAC should invalidate the ownership and directorship of NIGERLSTAG Limited, which was procured in a fraudulent manner and all benefits taken as a result should be returned to the police."