Former Borno State Governor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff yesterday recounted his experience with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Sheriff told reporters in Abuja that contrary to report, he was neither detained nor intimidated during his interrogation by EFCC operatives on Wednesday over allegations that he mismanaged over N300 billion his administration received from the Federation Account between 2003 and 2011 when he was the state governor.
The former governor, who had appeared before the EFCC following a report that the commission was planning to declare him wanted, said he was surprised that the antigraft agency was questioning him over an incident that happened more than four years ago.
He said: “I left office May 29, 2011; four years after, nobody has ever invited me for anything, nobody has questioned me. I just saw a newspaper publication, which said that EFCC was set to declare Governor Sheriff wanted. “I had not seen the letter inviting me to EFCC by that time. I decided to go to them to know what the issue was all about.
They presented me with a document that there was a budget provision and contract awarded between 2006 and 2010 and 2011. “I said first and foremost, I left office in 2011; four years after the contract you are talking about was awarded. Nobody has ever approached me for any wrongdoing. ”
According to him, the EFCC asked him to furnish it with his asset declaration document while the reason given in media on why EFCC was looking for him was different from the issues he was confronted with during interrogation. He said: “What they presented to me was that there was a contract awarded in 2006.
They said the budget for specific capital projects was N800 million. I told them I had no way of checking it. Let us even assume that it was even awarded at that amount, you do not finish a contract in one year.”
On whether his case has political undertone and was meant to embarrass him, the former governor, who defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014, said: “I don’t know.”
“When I went there, they said they were investigating a petition that was sent in 2011. They were civil to me. You know, it could be anything to embarrass me. Since that 2011, I have never left the country. I want to see what they want. They asked me to go and come back again.
They said they were looking for my asset declaration form and I told them I would provide it if that is what they want to see. I do not know if they are probing my assets or the contracts I awarded. I was surprised. From what you read in the newspapers and what was read to me was contradictory. The papers said they were investigating me for missing N300 billion. And that was not what they asked me,” the former governor stated.
He defended his tenure as Borno governor, saying he performed above board. He said apart from meeting the infrastructural needs of the state, he left N65 billion in the state treasury, adding that although he inherited N28 billion debt when he assumed office, his administration paid off the debt. “My hands are clean. I stand to be corrected. There is no government that leaves N65 billion for the incoming administration.
If I wanted to take money, I would have taken money like others. I did not leave a single debt for my successor. I arrived as state governor with a debt of over N28 billion. I cleared them and left N65billion,” Sheriff added.
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