Benue’s N107bn: Court freezes suspects’ bank accounts

The Benue State Attorney general and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Mike Gusa, on Thursday said that an  Abuja Chief Magistrate  Court had ordered immediate freezing of the bank accounts of 12 former Benue officials recently arrested by EFCC in conjunction with Nigeria police.

Gusa, who spoke with our correspondent, said those whose accounts were frozen include the former Benue State Commissioner of Finance, Omadachi Oklobia; former Adviser on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Prince Solomon Wombo; former Permanent Secretary in the Bureau, Asen Sambe; the accountant of the bureau, Isaiah Ipevnor; and 12 others indicted by the Kpojime Commission of Inquiry for allegedly looting over N107bn belonging to state government.

Gusa said the court gave the order while ruling on an exparte motion brought before it by Police detectives who are investigating the matter.

According to Gusa, ”Since these people were arrested and investigation is still going on, the Police decided to obtain order from court to put every transaction around their accounts on hold, pending when investigation would be completed”.

The commissioner said the order has been served on all affected banks and was optimistic that Benue State Government would follow due process in the recovery of the alleged looted funds.

The Attorney General disclosed that, so far, over N250m have been recovered from the suspects, saying the state government in collaboration with anti graft agencies is making efforts to recover the remaining money.