The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has convicted Darius Ishaku, the former governor of Taraba State.
Ishaku, the governor of Taraba State from 2015 to 2023, was taken into custody on suspicion of embezzling N27 billion. According to a high-ranking commission insider who spoke with our correspondent, Ishaku will face fifteen accusations.
We are currently holding Darius Ishaku, the former governor of Taraba State. He is the subject of a N27b fraud investigation. The source stated that he would be charged with fifteen counts.
Both the former governor and Bello Yero, the former Permanent Secretary of the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, are named as defendants on a copy of the charge sheet dated September 27, which our correspondent was able to secure on Friday.
The EFCC accused the defendants in the action with the file number CR/792/24 of diverting N1,010,000,000 for their own use in Abuja between August 25, 2015, and March 21, 2016. The suit was brought before a Federal Capital Territory High Court.
According to the organization, the sum was a portion of the Bureau of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs’ 2.5 percent contingency funding.
The two committed an offense that was prohibited by statute 315 of the Penal Code A, Cap 532, Laws of the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria 2007, according to the EFCC, and that was penalized by the same statute.
Additionally, it was alleged that Ishaku and Yero had diverted a total of N1,138,082, 097. The defendants, Ishaku and Bello Yero, were accused of diverting N761,301,000 from the Bureau’s 2.5 percent contingency reserve of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs between July 2015 and May 2019.
They were also accused of diverting N1bn granted by Zenith Bank Plc. to Worthy Construction Limited between September 2015 and January 2018. The defendants were entrusted with dominion over certain property, including N3,348,942,411.15, which was part of the funds belonging to the Bureau of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and Local Government Councils in Taraba State. They committed criminal breach of trust by dishonestly diverting the sum to their own use. Other sums allegedly part of the contingency fund diverted by the defendants include N650,686,369.99 between January 6, 2019, and April 29, 2021, N193,030,000 between January 2019 and April 29, 2021, and N170,549,842.00 between January 6, 2019, and April 29, 2021.
