A Timeline: Ibrahim Shema’s probe has been a long time coming

The Economic And Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has just declared the immediate past governor of Katsina State Wanted on the Commission’s Twitter account.

The allegations against him range from criminal conspiracy to abuse of office and a bunch of money related offences in-between. We had actually been wondering when this was going to happen considering all the allegations that had been levelled against him since he left office.

First it was former Minister of Mines and Steel, Arch. Musa Muhammad Sada, who, back in May, had told the EFCC that he was authorised by the former governor to collect the sum of N700 million on behalf of Katsina State.

He was to remit the funds to the State’s former Commissioner of Finance who was to keep it for him (Shema). This was part of the revelations made in connection with the alleged N23.29 billion poll bribery scandal.

Then it was Aminu Masari, the incumbent governor of Katsina who set up a panel to probe the tenure of Shema.

A back and forth ensued between both camps when Shema failed to show up after several invitations by the panel. There were reports that the former governor and some members of his cabinet were evading summons after which Shema came out to say that he wasn’t afraid of being probed.

But the thing is, he never did really come out. He actually hasn’t made a real appearance or given a direct speech about it. It was his media aide, Oluwabusola Olawale, that said the commission was being mischievous to say he was evading summons and that no attempt was made to serve him at the time he was being accused of evading service.

By July, Governor Masari already had “concrete evidence” to report Ibrahim Shema to the EFCC in connection with stolen funds.

Masari said the former governor would only escape from the hammer of the EFCC if he agrees to return the looted funds. At this point it had already become unclear which funds were in question.  There was the N76.6 billion collected as excess crude oil allocation which Masari claimed Shema had diverted over N7.5 billion of.

He also said Mr. Shema and other top government officials of the Ministry of Local Government Affairs connived and faked receipts to divert over N750 million earmarked to purchase drugs for local government councils.

Furthermore, a letter written by Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Shema’s counsel in July made allusions to other sums. For instance, a debt of N42 billion which the former governor was being accused of having incurred for Katsina State upon the expiration of its term.

He also mentioned “a sum of NGN 13 billion [that] ‘got missing’ and/or was unaccounted for at/by the Ministry of Finance between January and May, 2015.”

There was also “a sum of NGN 7 billion [that] was dubiously transferred to the account of the state chapter of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) [which] was recklessly used by the said local government areas.”

There was also an embezzled N7.1 billion from the fund meant for the SURE-P scheme and finally, “N556 million misappropriated by the State Universal Basic Education Board.”

One would have thought that this would have blown up as the anti-corruption case of the year but it’s obvious we only had to be patient for the EFCC to choose the right time.

Now, Shema has been declared wanted by the EFCC. According a statement released by the Commission, “the former governor ignored several invitations by the commission since December 1, 2015 when he was first summoned by the agency.”

We definitely cannot wait to see how this plays out. Maybe another Ibori?

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