Godswill Akpabio, a former minister of Niger Delta affairs, has been invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission due to allegations of abuse of authority and misappropriation of billions of Naira.
According to Akpabio’s lawyer, Umeh Kalu, the EFCC requested that Akpabio appear in its office on March 29, 2023, in a letter that was delivered to him.
After an attempt to bribe Abdulrasheed Bawa, the head of the anti-graft agency, with $350,000 in 2021, the senator-elect was jailed (about N135 million).
Sources claim that Akpabio was attempting to bribe the EFCC Chairman due to the many corruption charges that have been made against him since his tenure as the governor of Akwa Ibom State.
It was learnt that the meeting between Akpabio and Bawa was arranged by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN).
It was gathered that it took a call from the Aso Villa to the EFCC Chairman to get Akpabio and his aides released.
There had been allegations of N40 billion fraud perpetrated in the NDDC, a ministry which was headed by Akpabio for three years.
The Senate and the House of Representatives in 2020 resolved to probe the alleged N40 billion financial recklessness of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC in the previous three months.
Also, there were allegations of over N86 billion contract scam involving the senator-elect and the former Acting Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Prof. Kemebradikumo Pondei, which the EFCC has been looking into.
The anti-graft agency had in the past arrested Akpabio over alleged theft of N108.1billion of Akwa Ibom funds.