The Economic
and financial Crimes Commission officials in Lagos said they have found a
hotel being constructed by Governor Yari of Zamfara state with $3m he
stole from London-Paris Club loan refund to Nigerian states.
The
governor who is the chairman of the Governor’s Forum illegally diverted
N19billion reportedly meant for “consultants” from the Paris club loan
refund which had been illegally paid into the account of the Nigeria
Governors Forum (NGF) by Nigeria’s Minister of France, Kemi Adeosun and
the Central Bank of Nigeria.
SaharaReporters learnt that the hotel is a 100-room property situated in Lekki area of Lagos.
EFCC
officials said they have already marked down the hotel as proceeds of
corruption and plan to take it over after obtaining a court order.
Apart
from the $3million, Governor Yari also diverted N500 million from the
Paris Club refund to pay off a loan, an Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) source revealed to SaharaReporters.
According
to the source, Mr. Yari withdrew N500m from the N19 billion Paris Club
refund from the account of Nigeria Governors Forum from the N522b
allocated to the 36 states and deposited the sum into a mortgage bank
account.
Mr. Yari then transferred the sum to the mortgage bank
from which he had borrowed N800m to purchase to properties in 2013.
According to the source, the governor was able to renegotiate his debt
from N800m to N500m.
Overall the governor is said to have
embezzled the sum of N2.2 billion from the N19billion set aside
illegally to pay “consultants.”
SaharaReporters had earlier
revealed that Senate President Bukola Saraki and his cronies are also
being investigated by the EFCC for his role in the embezzlement of N3.5b
from the Paris Club loan through the slush fund placed at the Access
Bank by the Nigeria Governors Forum, who claimed it was meant for
consultants.
from sahara reporters