A former speaker of the state House of Assembly, Isiyaku Ali-Danja, has been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), over alleged abuse of office and misappropriation of constituency projects’ funds.
The EFCC acting spokesperson, Tony Orilade, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.
He said Ali-Danja was arrested following a petition alleging the diversion of funds meant for payment of tax liabilities to Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) by Kano State Government.
Orilade said the fund, to the tune of over N1.5 billion, was diverted and misappropriated from the sub-treasury account of the state government.
The arrest comes days after the anti-graft agency arrested the state’s Commissioner for Special Duties for alleged N86 million fraud.
“Several suspicious payments were allegedly traced to some beneficiaries, including some made to Allad Drilling Limited, a company in which Mr Ali-Danja is the sole signatory to its accounts,” the statement said.
“Investigation by the EFCC further revealed that the funds were on several occasions personally withdrawn in cash by the suspect, while he was the only one who could officially state whether jobs were done before any payments could be made.
“It would be recalled that the EFCC had earlier arrested the Commissioner for Special Duties in the State, Mukhtar Ishaq, for allegedly diverting funds meant for Kano Municipal Local Government while he was chairman of the said local government.
“Mukhtar was arrested by EFCC following a petition that alleged that while he was chairman of Kano Municipal, he diverted funds meant for projects, development and empowerment of the people,” it added.
The petitioner further alleged that Mr Mukhtar ordered the deduction of N30, 000 from the account of each council member without justification.
The lawmaker was also accused to have allegedly converted property of Kofar Nassarawa Primary School, Kano, into shops and sold the same at N10 million per shop and diverted the money to his personal use.
The EFCC said the accused would be charged to court on completion of investigations.
