Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said on Friday in Enugu that Imo state government is under its searchlight for alleged money laundering during the last gubernatorial election in the state.
The commission said based on its intervention, the sum of N5 billion was saved for the incoming administration to inherit.
The Southeast zonal head of EFCC, Usman Imam told reporters that the commission swung into action on receiving signals from Abuja of the shady deals going on on the eve of the election and ensured that it blocked all avenues money was being syphoned from.
Imam said already, the sums of N700m and N500m had been withdrawn prior to their intervention and steps were already in progress to withdraw another N1.8b when they arrived to stop it.
According to him, the sad thing about the shady deal was that the monies were from the bailout fund received from the Federal Government for the purpose of paying salaries and pensions.
But state government officials who are still answering questions regarding the withdrawals claim the monies were for schools projects.
Imam further hinted that the zonal office fully participated in the monitoring of elections in the zone in line with the acting chairman’s directive to checkmate electoral fraud especially vote buying and money laundering.
“The commission’s involvement was due to our realisation that we cannot be said to be fighting corruption without looking critically at electoral process to make sure they are not only transparent, but people voted their conscience and not out of pecuniary or material inducements,” he informed.
