Nigeria's EFCC Arraigns Ex-Bauchi Accountant General, Director of Finance over N258 Million Fraud

The Gombe Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Wednesday, March 18, 2020, arraigned the ex- Accountant General of the Bauchi State government, Yusuf Ibrahim Gokaru and the State Director of Finance, Ibrahim Muhammed Lele. They were arraigned before Justice A.H Suleiman of the Bauchi State High Court on 42 count-charges, bordering on obtaining by false pretence, conspiracy, money laundering and concealment of the source and origin of the money.

The arrest and arraignment of the defendants were sequel to a petition from Bauchi State Government, dated August 26, 2019.

Gokaru and Lele were alleged to have connived and used their official positions as Accountant General of Bauchi State government and Director Finance of the same office to obtain the sum of N258, 363, 200, (Two Hundred and Fifty Eight Million, Three Hundred and Sixty Three Thousand, Two Hundred Naira) only for their personal use. .

The money was from the World Bank as an assistance to Bauchi State Government under the programme of State Education Programme Investment Project (SEPIP), instead of using the fund for the project, the defendants allegedly concealed the source of the money by transferring from the Bauchi State Consolidated Naira Account, domiciled at Polaris Bank to a Unity Bank, suspected to be their personal accounts.

EFCC