The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission says 18 states are currently under investigation over allegations bordering on the mismanagement of public funds.
EFCC Director of Public Affairs, Wilson Uwujaren, stated this during an interview on Arise Television on Thursday.
Uwujaren who spoke while responding to questions on the commission’s decision to restrict an Osun State Government account, however, declined to name the states involved.
He said the Osun case was one of several similar actions the EFCC had taken or was preparing to take against state governments.
Asked directly whether other states were being investigated, Uwujaren confirmed that the number ran into double digits.
“Like we said in the statement, there are about 18 other states that we have ongoing investigations,” he said.
“I don’t want to start mentioning those states by name now,” he said.
When the interviewer suggested he should disclose the states with ongoing investigations, arguing that Nigerians deserved to know, Uwujaren held his ground, insisting the reluctance was strictly to protect the integrity of the probes and not to help any government evade scrutiny.
“Not running away per se, but not to jeopardise the investigation that is currently ongoing,” he said.
Uwujaren said the commission’s action against Osun State was not an isolated case, noting that a similar restriction had previously been placed on an Edo State Government account before the emergence of Governor Monday Okpebholo.
“Before, during the Edo State government, the Edo State election, before the coming of Governor Okpebholo, EFCC also took actions to restrict the account of that state government when we saw that funds were being moved to suspicious accounts.
“And we were able to preserve $12 billion for them. That is why the current government was able to come on board and have resources to work,” he said.
He said the commission’s interventions were guided by law and not directed at any particular administration.
“So this is not targeted at any particular government. We are simply doing our work under the law,” he said.
Asked why the commission had not taken similar action during the Ekiti State election, Uwujaren said the circumstances were different, citing intelligence that only the commission had access to.
