By Julius Alabi
Members of the Global Anti Corruption Crusaders have called on the Chairman of the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Olanipekun Olukoyede to consider a speedy probe of a Benue senator, Mr. Titus Zam.
The Senator was accused of multiple frauds while he held sway as the Special Adviser of the Benue State Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.
The anti corruption group which is made up of lawyers across the North Central region of the country made this known at the weekend during a press briefing which was addressed by its Chairman, Barrister John Tsav Esq.
Tsav, a younger brother to the late former Lagos State police commissioner, Abubakar Tsav had recently petitioned the EFCC, ICPC and the Senate Committee on Public Petitions to invite, investigate and prosecute Senator Titus Zam who represents Benue Northwest at the National Assembly over an alleged billion naira fraud while he was the special adviser at the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in Benue state between 2015 and 2018.
The Senator was reportedly sacked by the then governor, Chief Samuel Ortom as a result of his zero tolerance for corruption.
The group however urged the anti graft agency to live up to its words by inviting the senator for questioning over the allegations.
It further said that the senator shouldn’t be treated differently because of his closeness to some “power brokers” at the seat of power in Abuja.
According to the group, there have been efforts by some people to kill the petition so that the truth won’t be revealed to the public.
Specifically, Tsav mentioned the senator representing Benue NorthEast Barrister Emmanuel Udende as one of the power brokers in Abuja that has been allegedly blocking EFCC from probing the allegations of N3.785B frauds made against Dr. Zam who doubles as the leader of the Benue APC National Assembly Caucus, Senator Titus Zam
The anti corruption group accused Udende of using his power as the chairman of the Senate Committee on EFCC and anti corruption to downplay the petition which the anti graft agency had already listed for investigation and prosecution.
Tsav said: “No one is above the law and we expect the EFCC chairman to live up to his words that he won’t spare any corrupt public office holder no matter how close such person is to the government that appointed him to head the agency.
“Why some power brokers in Abuja are blocking the petition is what we haven’t understood. A petition has been filed and the EFCC has invited us to adopt it in person, and that we have done with further documents as requested by them.
“It’s left to the EFCC to invite him, investigate him and determine if he has a case to answer or not, and not that some godfathers will be running helter skelter to frustrate our efforts”
Ortom had in June 2018 reportedly sacked Titus Zam as his Special Adviser over missing government funds running into hundreds of millions of Naira.
Chief Ortom was said to have petitioned Titus Zam to the EFCC but the investigation was halted by some Benue-born influential politicians within the federal administration led by then Muhammadu Buhari.
“Part of Zam’s offence which led to his sack was that he injected some fake names into the payrolls of the Bureau and was personally diverting their salaries into his personally use. Also, the senator incurred the wrath of his former employer, Samuel Ortom when the former governor realized that he had been defrauding the state through a central payment of salaries to the twenty three local governments of the state.
“He was also accused of pocketing the salaries of about 7,000 staffers that he illegally dismissed. Reports had it that the development got Ortom very angry and sacked him,” Tsav claimed.
Global Anti Corruption Crusaders had last month made a copy of the petition with EFCC Reference Number EFCC/PET/HQR/0747/2024 titled: “Report of massive frauds and illegal deductions of local government allocations by Senator Titus Zam and others” which was received by the EFCC headquarters in Abuja on Monday 18th March, 2024 to reporters.
The petitioner in their petition signed by Tsav Esq and Apine Anthony, chairman and secretary respectively said that the senator representing Benue Northwest at the National Assembly, one Emmanuel Gbagyo, a former accountant of the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and one Emmanuel Ikpe, a former permanent secretary of the Bureau illegally and without the knowledge of the state government deducted the sum of N3, 795, 000,000.00 (Three billion , seven hundred and ninety five million Naira) from the allocation of the twenty three local governments between June 217 and May 2018 that they were sacked by Chief Ortom for gross financial misappropriation.
According to the petitioners, the trio of Zam, Gbagyo and Ikpe were deducting N15,000,000.00 (Fifteen million naira) from the allocation of each of the twenty three local government areas of Benue state for the period stated above.