Politics

Obaseki Sacks Etsako West LG Chairman Over N46m Fraud

Published

5 years ago

Oct 24, 2019.

The Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki, has sacked the Chairman of Etsako West Local Government, Yakubu Musa, over allegation of N46m fraud.
It was gathered that the Governor had sworn in Alhaji Imonofi Osumah as the new chairman of the local government.
The Governor revealed that the sacked loacl government chairman was indicted of financial misappropriation by the investigation conducted by the panel setup by the state government.
Obaseki revealed this at the swearing in of the new chairman at the State House in Benin City the state capital.
It was gathered that the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole, hails from the Etsako West LGA.
Obaseki stressed that his administration would not tolerate any misappropriation of public funds and negligence of duty would be sanctioned.
He said “With the permission and authorisation of the Edo State House of Assembly, we dropped Yakubu Musa for engaging in corrupt activities. He was dropped based on the investigations conducted following reports and observations at the monthly Joint Account Allocation Committee meetings I presided over.
“Local councils in urban areas have common traits. They are heavily indebted, have huge salary arrears and the level of accountability is very poor. I charge you to ensure you do better and guard against corrupt acts. We have zero-tolerance for corruption.”
It could be recalled that the sacked chairman was suspended on September 16, 2019, to allow for investigation in the alleged divertion of public funds.
However, the panel’s findings revealed that over N46m was paid to two ghost workers by a staff member employed by the erstwhile chairman.
In its recommendation, the penel advised that the chairman be “removed from office on the grounds of negligence of duty, improper accounting and auditing of the council’s finances, lack of adequate supervision of staff and for allowing fraud under his nose.”