The Kogi State government has threatened to sue the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), after the anti-graft agency obtained a court order to freeze the state’s salary bailout account domiciled in Sterling Bank Plc.
LIB reported earlier that Justice Tijjani Ringim of the federal high court in Lagos, granted the order following an ex parte application brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), pending the conclusion of the investigation or possible prosecution.
The order was granted after EFCC’s counsel, Abass Muhammed informed the court that a N20 billion loan meant to augment salary payment and running cost of the Kogi state government, was kept in an interest-yielding fixed deposit account with Sterling Bank.
Kogi state’s Commissioner of Information and Communication in the state, Kingsley Fanwo who addressed newsmen at the Kogi Liaison Office in Abuja, described the claim as a deliberate attempt to malign the integrity of Governor Yahaya Bello.
Fanwo also said that EFCC’s claim of Governor Bello not disbursing the said bailout funds released by the Federal Government in 2019 for payment of salary arrears owed civil servants in the state, are “false and malicious”.
According to the commissioner, the state government disbursed the said funds since October 2019.