Legal Nigeria

Fraud: Ex-Zamfara governor remains in custody as EFCC releases former accountant-general

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has released the former Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, from its custody.

The commission had secured a court order to detain the embattled Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, for more days.

Idris, who was arrested by the anti-graft agency on May 16 over alleged N80 billion fraud, was released Wednesday night on administrative bail.

The spokesman for the commission, Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed release of the embattled senior government official to newsmen on the telephone on Thursday.

”We only released him on administrative bail. He has been released from our custody for now,” Uwujaren simply told newsmen.

Newsmen had reported how the commission got a court order to detain Idris further with a view to answering more questions from crack detectives probing him on the alleged fraud.

A few days after his arrest, Idris was suspended by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, saying the suspension would enable him to face his probe.

Meanwhile, a former governor of Zamfara State, Abdul-aziz Yari, who was arrested in connection with Idris’ probe last Sunday at his Abuja residence was still in the EFCC custody as of when filing this report.

A senior official at the commission told newsmen that Yari was yet to completely and satisfactorily provide all necessary details regarding the ongoing probe.

”I can authoritatively confide in you that Yari is still with us. He’s still providing us necessary details on how over N100bn disappeared from the suspended accountant-general of the Federation who has just been released,” the official said.

When approached for confirmation, the EFCC spokesman, Uwujaren, promised to get back to our correspondent but he had yet to do so as of the time of filing this report.

Credit: NIGERIAN BBC NEWS.