The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission has received a new petition filed against the immediate past
governor of Akwa Ibom State, Senator Godswill Akpabio.
The petition was titled, “Petition
against former Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State for gross
and uncommon abuse of public trust.”
Copies of the petition were also sent to
President Muhammadu Buhari and the Director General of the Department
of State Service, Lawal Daura.
This was the third petition against the
former governor who was recently appointed as the Minority Leader of the
upper legislative chamber.
The latest petition, dated August 3, 2015, but was received by the commission on August 5, 2015.
The petitioner, Leo Ekpenyong, said he
discovered what he called “uncommon diversion of Akwa Ibom tax payers”
money for the acquisition of massive properties by the former governor.
Ekpenyong, said, “The properties owned
by Akpabio and his surrogates are itemized as follows: Eleven blocks of
four luxury flats, making it a total of 44 luxury flats registered in
the name of Prince Ukpong Akpabio. The location is Woji, Port-Harcourt
in Rivers State.
“It is worthy of note that Akpabio owns a
total of 27 estates apart from the ones mentioned in our earlier
petitions.Some of the housing estates have between 25 and 75 premium
units.
“These estates are located in the Lekki
area of Lagos; Lekki Phase 1, near the Pan African University, off
Chevron roundabout.Others are located at Banana Island in Ikoyi, Gbagada
on the Lagos mainland as well as Ogunlana Drive in Surulere, Lagos.”
Ekpenyong had earlier sent two petitions to the commission against the former governor.
The first petition was dated June 8 while the second one was dated June 22.
The petitioner told our correspondent on
Wednesday that he had appeared thrice before the commission’s
investigators to “adopt the petitions.”
He said on the three occasions, he
backed up the petitions with oral testimonies and explained to the
investigators that he was ready to testify against the former governor.
Spokesperson for the EFCC, Mr. Wilson
Uwajuren, however, told our correspondent that he didn’t know if the
commission had received the latest petition.
He said, “Several petitions are sent to
the commission on a daily basis. Because of this, I may not know the
details of the petition. That’s the situation. “
The former governor could not be reached
for his reaction as of the time of filing this report. Calls made to
his telephone line indicated that it was switched off, while a text
message sent to him was not delivered.
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