Governors of the 36 states of Nigeria have challenged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to proceed with its investigation on the alleged diversion of the refund made to states from the excess charges of Paris Club.
The governors said they did nothing wrong in the use of the money and will be willing to take on the commission on the matter.
Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and Zamfara state governor, Abdulaziz Yari, told State House correspondents on Wednesday night that they were waiting for the EFCC probe since the governors were sure nothing would come out of it.
The Federal Govermment is suspecting that the NGF may have used fictitious consultants to divert some of the money from Paris Club.
The Presidency therefore ordered a full scale investigation into the disbursement of the funds.
Speaking after an NGF meeting in the State House Conference Centre, Yari said: “We discussed the issue of Paris Club and London Club. We observed that EFCC said it is doing investigations. Yeah, we support the federal government for fighting corruption.
We are waiting for the EFCC to come up with what they say is the investigation and come up with the result.”
He however expressed governors’ support for the ongoing battle against corruption.
The Federal Government was said to have expressed displeasure over the continued cry of pensioneers despite the availability of the Paris Club money.
The were indications last week that the EFCC questioned the Director General of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Asishana Okauru, over the use of the possible diversion of funds by state governors as it was believed that the governors may have paid the money to phoney companies.
The reports also fingered the Senate President, Bukola Saraki over the abuse of the funds.
But the governors were said to be fighting back over what they claimed was the unnecessary harassment of the commission.
A report alleged that the governors’ forum championed a five percent deduction of the funds paid to the states whereby some governors got about N400 million while Saraki got N2.5billion.
In the report, the EFCC was said to have been informed by Okauru that he transferred money to individual governors, through the NGF, though he failed to write an official statement to this effect.
The EFCC has however denied indicting anyone, saying the investigation is still at a preliminary stage.
