Ambode Breaks Silence On N9.9bn Frozen Bank Accounts Linked To Him

Ambode Speaks On Frozen Bank Accounts

Akinwunmi Ambode, the immediate past executive governor of Lagos State has reacted to the claims linking him with the bank accounts frozen by a federal court last Tuesday over an alleged N9.9 billion fraud.

The judge had ordered that the accounts, domiciled in Zenith Bank, Access Bank, and First City Monument Bank, be temporarily frozen following an exparte application brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

The EFCC had alleged that N9.9 billion was paid from the state government’s coffers into the FCMB account opened on September 17, 2018, and operated by Adewale Adesanya, the permanent secretary in the Office of the Chief of Staff to Mr Ambode.

However, reacting on Friday in a statement through Habib Aruna his media aide, Mr Ambode who served as the Lagos state governor between 2015 and 2019 denied any personal links to the frozen accounts.

He disclosed that the accounts belong to the state government and not any single individual.

“Those accounts were opened in the course of normal operations by the Lagos State Government for its administrative purposes and not for the former governor’s personal transactions as was being wrongly insinuated and have been operated to ensure smooth operations of government activities by previous and present administrations,” Ambode said in the statement.

“The former governor was not and will never be involved in any unauthorized use of government property and resources.

“We strongly believe that after four demanding years as Chief Executive of Lagos State, Mr Ambode is entitled to some deserved rest with his family and loved ones without the unwarranted attacks on his well-earned reputation.”

The statement further called on all stakeholders to support “our great Party the All Progressives Congress (APC) both at the State and national levels in order to continue to deliver the dividends of democracy to Lagosians and Nigerians respectively.”

Ambode added that while he has no intention to join issues with the EFCC, it is pertinent to clarify what he described as the misleading press statement on Tuesday.