by Nurat Uthman
The Network of Edo Lawyers has asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC and the Nigeria Police to freeze the bank accounts of the State Government ahead of the November 12 inauguration of the new governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo.
The lawyers also kicked against the sweating in of a new Accountant General by the outgoing Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, describing it as a plot to enable the administration withdraw more money from the banks.
Following large-scale last-minute withdrawals last week, the EFCC had picked the state’s Accountant General and two other officials, a development which made the governor to swear in a replacement on Thursday.
In a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the group of lawyers, called on the anti-graft agency and the Nigeria Police Force to freeze all Edo State Government accounts as “Governor Obaseki has gone berserk, pulling out all revenues that belong to the State, six days to leaving office.”
The statement signed by Julius Ilenkhe, noted that the governor on Thursday, swore in a new Accountant-General to enable him pull out the remaining resources of Edo State in some banks.
According to him, “these monies belong to Edo state and not Obaseki. He tried to use supplementary budget, which the Speaker of Edo state turned down”.
“Now he wants to clear the state accounts in all the banks by appointing a new Accountant General, since the former Accountant General is cooling off with EFCC over suspicious withdrawal of over N14 billion last week.
“The race to protect Edo state must be collective as one man cannot destroy the state because of his high appetite.
“It is important that all security agencies and the good people of the state and Nigeria join hands together to prevent this arbitrary looting of public funds.
