The Minister Of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has suspended Ahmed Idris, the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) indefinitely.
This is coming two days after the arrest of Idris by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over an alleged N80 billion fraud.
Operatives of the EFCC, on Monday, arrested the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris, over an alleged N80 billion fraud.
Spokesman of the commission, Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed his arrest in a statement issued on Monday evening.
He said Idris was arrested after allegedly failing to honour the commission’s invitations to respond to issues connected to the fraudulent act.
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Uwujaren’s statement read:
Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Monday, May 16, 2022, arrested serving Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Ahmed Idris, in connection with diversion of funds and money laundering activities to the tune of N80 billion.
The commission’s verified intelligence showed that the AGF raked off the funds through bogus consultancies and other illegal activities using proxies, family members and close associates.
According to the EFCC, the funds were laundered via real estate investments in Kano and Abuja.
On its part, the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) urged the EFCC to also beam its searchlight on the administration of Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) managed by the embattled AGF.
Chairperson of ASUU, Federal University Otuoke (FUO), Bayelsa State, Dr. Socrates Ebo, who made the call in a statement in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, while reacting to the arrest of the AGF, said it was no longer news that both the Auditor-General of the Federation and the Head of Service had separately decried the corruption in IPPIS.
Dr Ebo said:
Since the deployment of the payment platform, no lecturer can say for certain what his salary is. They deduct what they like from the salary and pay what they like to whom they like.
It had been severally alleged that the payment platform sometimes generates ‘audio’ personnel on the payroll. Someone who could allegedly pilfer N80 billion from public coffers cannot possibly pay Nigerian workers their due salaries with sincerity.
The AGF is the manager of the IPPIS. EFCC should extend its searchlight to the administration of the payment platform. I believe it will make interesting finds.
