Alleged Money Laundering: EFCC Releases Oyo State Accountant-General

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has released the Accountant-General of Oyo State, Alhaji Gafar Bello.

Naija News had reported that the anti-graft agency arrested Bello and a yet-to-be-identified politician last week Friday over his alleged involvement in N9billion money laundering.

It was learned that Bello was arrested over the deduction of N9billion from the local government funds to finance the upcoming elections in the state in 2023.

In a statement on Tuesday, Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Dr Wasiu Olatubosun, said the accountant-general was released on Monday.

The commissioner disclosed that the accountant-general spent four days with the anti-graft agency before his release on Monday.

Olatubsoun stated that Bello’s arrest was a desperate and malicious attempt to intimidate the state government and distract it from providing the dividends of democracy to the people of the state.

The statement read in part: “The arrest of the Oyo State Accountant General on Friday, February 25, 2022, and subsequent release on Monday, February 25, 2022, was a desperate and malicious attempt at thwarting a constitutional process that had already been instituted at the Federal High Court, Ibadan, with a hearing date of Monday, March 1, 2022.

“The Government of Oyo State refuses to be intimidated, cowed or distracted from its one goal of providing good governance.

“His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Oyo State, remains committed to fidelity, accountability, integrity, transparency and honesty which has been the hallmark of this administration since its inception on May 29, 2019, and urges the good people of Oyo State to remain undeterred as this is just another in the series of hurdles that they and indeed all right-thinking Nigerians as a whole must cross in their determination to rescue Nigeria.”