EFCC To Revisit Alleged N70b Fraud Case Against Matawalle

Says No One Is Above Law

TEconomic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC) yesterday said that it would under its present leadership revisit the N70 billion money laundering case against former Zamfara State governor and current Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle.

The commission specifically said all high profile cases left behind by its former chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, were being reviewed.

The Acting Director of Public Affairs at the commission, Wilson Uwujaren, disclosed this when a group under the aegis of Zamfara Alternative Forum ( ZAF) protested at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.

The ZAF stormed the EFCC headquarters to urge the commission to revisit the probe of Matawalle over alleged N70 billion money laundering during his tenure as the Governor of Zamfara State. Recall that the former governor was initially under investigation by the anti- graft agency during the tenure of Abdulrasheed Bawa over the alleged pocketing of N70 billion from the Zamfara State government coffers.

The EFCC alleged that the governor si phone dz am far a state’ s funds sourced as a loan from an old- generation bank purportedly for the execution of projects in local councils of the state.

The anti- graft commission alleged that the governor used proxies, who posed as contractors for the projects and got paid, but did not execute the projects.

Matawalle had accused the EFCC of targeting only governors while ignoring officials with budgetary allocation at the federal level. However, since Bawa left office, not much had been heard about the case.