EFCC Declares Former Governor of Katsina, Ibrahim Shema Wanted

Ibrahim Shema

 

The antigraft agency, EFCC has declared a former state governor, Ibrahim Shema wanted for criminal conspiracy, inflation of contracts, abuse of office, diversion of funds and embezzlement running into billions of naira.

The announcement was made on the EFCC social media accounts and the news has since gone viral.

 

See a screenshot of the announcement below:

 

 

The ex-governor is being sought for allegedly mismanaging about N68 billion of state funds while he was governor between 2007 and 2015.

In 2012 alone, sources said Mr. Shema allegedly diverted about N18 billion from government coffers into his private accounts for undisclosed reasons, according to Premium Times.

The officials said Mr. Shema further raided local governments monthly allocation accounts which were being jointly run with the state government, leaving little for developmental projects and clearance of local government employees’ wages and salaries. A sum of N50 billion is believed to have been mismanaged this way.

The EFCC sources said Mr. Shema had been evading the anti-graft office for close to a year; and narrowly escaped being arrested on Wednesday.

When he was invited for a meeting at the agency’s headquarters in December 2015, Mr. Shema responded that he was not in the country, a source at the anti-graft agency said.

“He wrote back to us that he would visit as soon as he returned, but he never did,” an EFCC source said. “Another two subsequent invitations were sent to him which he failed to honour.”

Against this backdrop, the EFCC has launched a nationwide manhunt for Mr. Shema beginning with his being declared wanted.