About 10 local government chairmen in Benue State have been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC for allegedly misappropriating over N900 million excess crude fund allocated to their council areas.

Sources close to some of the council chairmen in EFCC custody revealed that they were arrested in a sweeping raid across Benue State, last Tuesday.

Those arrested include Mr. Joseph Akaaza (Markudi LG), Clement Agada (Ogbabibo LG), Iordue Orya (Oshongo LG), Jonathan Akputu (Kwande LG), Abaji Samuel (Gwer West LG), Iwar Simon (Gwer East LG), Innocent Onu (Otukpo LG), Odeh Ageh (Obi LG), David Separ (Ukum LG) and Ameh Linus (Ohimini LG).

According to EFCC sources, the council chairman were accused of either diverting or converting to personal use various sums of money out of the N900 million allocated to the 10 local councils from the excess crude allocation account in March.

It was learnt that out of N93 million allocated to Markudi council area, the chairman could not account for N30 million, while his counterpart in Ogbabibo could not explain the where abouts of N40 million out of N78.3 million allocated to his council.


Also, the chairman of Oshongo could not give account for N40 million out of the N85.5 million granted the council.

This is the same story in Kwande, where the council boss could not account for N52.8 million out of the N99.8 granted, his colleague in Gwer West could not also account for N56.5 million out of his own allocation of N78 million, while the chairman of Gwer East is being held for his inability to justify the diversion of N54.5 million out of a total sum of N86 million allocated to his council.

In the same vein, the chairman of Otukpo is to account for the missing N28.3 million out of his own N99 million allocation, while his counterpart in Obi council is to explain what happened to N7.8 million missing from his N59 million grant.

While the LG boss of Ukum is to account for only N1.2 million out of N92 million, the one in Ohimini council is to explain the alleged misappropriation of N19.6 million out of an allocation of N70 million.

Some of the council chairman who are said to be willing to refund the money may be let out of detention on administrative bail any moment to enable them bring the money while they are all expected to face another round of interrogation at the EFCC office in Abuja on Thursday, April 22.

When contacted on the telephone over the arrest of the council chairmen, spokesman for the EFCC, Mr Femi Babafemi confirmed the Commission was investigating some council chairmen in Benue but declined to speak on their arrest or further details.

Aallafrica.com