Yobe Auditor General For LGs Inserted Ghost Workers In Payroll To Syphon Public Funds- EFCC

Yobe State Auditor General of Local Government Areas, Alhaji Idris Yahaya, is to forfeit eleven of his landed properties in Damaturu to the state government.

Justice Fadima Murtala Aminu of the Federal High Court sitting in Damaturu, Yobe State, ordered the forfeiture of the properties.

She gave the order for the interim forfeiture following an ex parte application filed by the Maiduguri Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

According to Mukhtar Ali Ahmed, the EFCC counsel, the Auditor General acquired the property through diversion of public funds.

He alleged that the landed property are proceeds of crime owing to criminal diversion of public funds, abuse of office and money laundering reported to the Commission.

He further alleged that the suspect enriched himself by putting ghost workers into the payroll of LGAs in Yobe State and acquired landed property from the proceeds of the crime.

“Investigation by the EFCC showed that the suspect diverted huge sums of money from the coffers of Yobe LGAs and illegally acquired the following properties:

Farsawa Plaza opposite First Bank of Nigeria Limited, along Gashua road, Damaturu, a mega plaza opposite Central Bank of Nigeria complex, situated along Gujba Road, Damaturu.

Others are: 20 units of self-contained, four units of single rooms self-contained and two units of rooms and parlor self-contained apartments, situated opposite the Central Bank of Nigeria Complex, along Gujba road, Damaturu,” he said.

The forfeiture order was given on Wednesday.