EFCC Invites Akpabio For Fresh Questioning Over Multi-Billion Naira Fraud

Godswill Akpabio, a former minister of Niger Delta affairs, has been invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) due to allegations of abuse of authority and theft of billions of Naira.

According to Akpabio’s attorney, Umeh Kalu, SaharaReporters learned that the EFCC invited Akpabio to appear before its office on March 29, 2023.

The senator-elect was held after attempting to pay $350,000 in bribes to Abdulrasheed Bawa, the head of the anti-graft agency, according to a 2021 report by SaharaReporters (about N135 million).

Sources claim that Akpabio was attempting to bribe the EFCC Chairman due to the numerous corruption charges that have been made against him since his time as the governor of Akwa Ibom State.

It was discovered that Abubakar Malami, the federation’s attorney general and minister of justice, set up the meeting between Akpabio and Bawa (SAN).

According to information obtained by SaharaReporters, the release of Akpabio and his assistants required a call from the Aso Mansion to the EFCC Chairman.

Allegations of N40 billion in fraud had allegedly been committed in the NDDC, a ministry that Akpabio oversaw for three years.

In 2020, the Senate and the House of Representatives decided to look into the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC’s alleged N40 billion in financial irresponsibility during the previous three months.

Also, the senator-elect and Prof. Kemebradikumo Pondei, the former Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), were allegedly involved in a N86 billion contract scam, which the EFCC is currently investigating.

Akpabio was previously detained by the anti-graft agency for allegedly stealing N108.1 billion from the Akwa Ibom government.