A few of the cases have gone on for numerous years, particularly those involving certain former governors. Some have been in court for years without a definitive conclusion, while others are still the subject of ongoing investigations.
Less than four months after Abdulrasheed Bawa, the previous chairman of the panel, was suspended, Olukoyede was confirmed by the Senate on Wednesday.
The immediate past governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi; his predecessor, Ayo Fayose; former governor of Zamfara State and current Minister of State for Defense, Bello Matawalle; and former governor of Enugu State, Chimaroke Nnamani, are among the former governors invited by the commission to participate in an investigation.
The former National Security Advisor under former President Goodluck Jonathan, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), and the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, are among the other unresolved issues involving the commission.
The panel invited Fayemi in June in response to claims that he misappropriated N4 billion while serving as governor. The former governor was invited “regarding a money laundering petition against him,” according to a statement made by Fayemi’s media assistant Ahmad Sajoh the next day. He added that the petition had been submitted by an anonymous party.
The previous governor of Zamfara State was under investigation, according to the EFCC, in May, amid claims that N70 billion had been embezzled from the state coffers. The EFCC stated Matawalle was being investigated for N70 billion in fraud, while the former governor charged Bawa of requesting a $2 million bribe. The status of the fraud claims and the bribery allegation could not be determined at the time this report was filed.
In 2018, the EFCC filed charges against Nnamani about an alleged N5.3 billion fraud; however, the case was dismissed. Nonetheless, the agency declared in February of that year that it planned to bring new charges against Nnamani and Sunday Anyaogu, his former assistant. It was unknown at the time this article was released whether the EFCC had, as it had claimed, filed the new charges or what the case’s current position was.
Theodore Orji, a former governor of Abia State, and his sons Chinedu and Ogbonna were also the subject of an EFCC investigation in 2021 due to allegations of theft of public funds and money laundering totaling N551 billion. The panel also charged the former governor in 2018 of mismanaging N27 billion that the Central Bank of Nigeria had given the state for Small and Medium Enterprises while he was governor.
Additionally, the agency accused Murtala Nyako, a former governor of Adamawa State who held office from 2007 until his impeachment in 2014, and eight other individuals of money laundering totaling N29 billion. After Nyako filed a no-case motion, the Court of Appeal decided in January 2022 that the case be sent back to the Federal High Court for a trial.
The EFCC also charged Ayodele Fayose, the former governor of Ekiti State, with N6.9 billion in fraud. The current leadership is expected to see the case through to its logical conclusion since it is now pending in court.
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