A former acting Governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Fintiri, has been detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in connection with the ongoing probe of a N1.9billion fraud.
He is being investigated for alleged abuse of office and corruption during his 86 days stint as acting governor.
Mr. Fintitri, a former Speaker of the Adamawa State House of Assembly, became acting governor in July 2014 following the “impeachment” of then governor, Murtala Nyako.
Nyako, whose impeachment was later nullified by the Yola Division of the Federal Court of Appeal in February 2016, allegedly left a balance of N1, 957, 045, 82 in the state government project account with a bank.
But Fintiri directed that N1.9 billion – the source of his trouble with the EFCC – from the account be released to the state Ministry of Works on August 27, 2014.
According to a top EFCC source, the money was awarded to a company, Roycon Limited, for the construction of Yola township road and another road project in Mararaba Garta, which was ravaged by Boko Haram.
While the Yola road gulped N1 billion, the one in Mararaba Garta was awarded for N1.9 billion.
Preliminary findings by the anti-graft commission revealed that there was evidence of the execution of Yola road project, but that of Mararaba Garta was not carried out because of Boko Haram insurgency.
“But from records available, Roycon Limited was given a mobilization fee of N20million. But the said N200million was later traced to Mayim Construction and Properties Limited which is allegedly owned by Fintiri.
“About $3.8million from the contract sum was alleged to have been paid to Fintiri who used it to purchase a property in Taraba State”, the source disclosed.
It was learnt that the EFCC invited the former acting governor for questioning based on a tip-off by a former member of his cabinet, who allegedly said he could not “keep quiet on what transpire under Fintiri”.
The source added that investigations so far had linked the former acting governor to a bank loan, which he used to set up a tea farm on Mambilla Plateau but when he allegedly got the $3.8 million kick-back from the road project, he diverted it to offset the loan.
Mr. Fintiri arrived at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja at about 12noon yesterday and was still being held as at the time of publishing this report.
