Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission grilled former Governor Godswill Akpabio for over seven hours for the second time within 24 hours on Saturday. At the end, they confronted him with evidence of his financial “dealings” while he held sway in Akwa Ibom State.
The interrogation of Akpabio by the agency, it was learnt, made it possible for him to come face-to- face with what was described as major financial transactions, on the second day with operatives, carried out by his administration.
The transactions, estimated at N108 billion, according to EFCC sources, were, however, said to have been stoutly defended by Akpabio, who claimed he had the power as governor to authorize such monumental expenditure “in the interest of Akwa Ibom state and its people”.
EFCC, acting on petitions filed against Akpabio and his administration, had, on Friday, summoned the former governor and grilled him. Sources claimed that evidence extracted from the accounts staff in Uyo Government House as well as ministries, agencies and departments was used to confront the Senate Minority Leader yesterday.
One of the sources told Vanguard that the former governor was still being grilled by the EFCC operatives as at 6pm after he arrived the headquarters around 11:45am.
“The former governor is still with our operatives, who are taking him up on a number of financial transactions that required clarifications from him and his officials”, the source added.
“We really need to know how and why certain transactions were carried out and if such huge withdrawals in certain cases, based on evidence before us, complied with laid down financial regulations or the said amount of money was wrongly spent.”
