Two serving Commissioners in the administration of Governor Martin Elechi of Ebonyi State, as well as the accountant general are currently being quizzed by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, at its head office in Abuja.
Sources revealed that the trio of Igbele, Accountant General; Timothy Ogbonnaya Odaa, Commissioner for Finance, and Honourable Cele Nwali, Commissioner for Local government and Chieftaincy Matters, who arrived Abuja Tuesday morning, are being quizzed on allegations bordering corruption and financial recklessness involving local government funds.
They are said to be telling interrogators all they know about an Asphalt Project earmarked for the 13 local government of the state by the Elechi administration for which monies running into millions of naira was deducted at source, from local government account.
Credible insiders said that it was Nwali, who directed all 13 Local Government Areas in Ebonyi State to erect Asphalt complexes in their Local Government Headquarters. Six of the local councils complied while seven did not. Yet funds were deducted from the accounts of all the local governments.
Nwali is also fingered as the brain behind the deduction of one million naira from each of the council ostensibly to fund the production of T-shirts for the Centenary celebration. There is said to be no evidence that the T-shirts were produced, while the N13m remain unaccounted for.
No official comment was available from the anti-graft agency.But observers believe this renewed activity in a period of election campaigns will elicit keen interest.
