‘How AGF illegally transferred N59b from EFCC account’

The House of Representatives ad hoc committee on investigation of recovered loots and assets of government, yesterday, heard how the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, transferred N20 billion to the Ministry of Defence without due process.

According to findings by the committee, which is chaired by Adesogun Adejoru, Idris also transferred another N20 billion to the capital development fund after one year without recourse to due process.
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Findings further showed in the documents tendered by the AGF before the lawmakers that another N19.6 billion was illegally transferred from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recovery account to African Development Bank (AfDB), totalling N59 billion.

The accountant-general admitted carrying out the withdrawals without recourse to relevant financial laws guarding the operations of his office.

Idris had appeared alongside the Minister for Finance, Zainab Ahmed, who briefed the lawmakers on the need to rebuild a framework to address the gaps that exist in financial transactions.

In his defence, the respondent explained that there was a budgetary approval for defence but funds were not readily available hence the resort to the EFCC account.
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