More troubles for ex-gov Shema as Gov Masari vows to chase after him over N50.5bn he allegedly looted

Katsina State Governor Aminu Bello Masari has vowed to employ all legal means to recover N50.5billion a commission of inquiry he set up said former Governor Ibrahim Shema looted.

Masari’s stance came after the chairman of the commission, Ado Muhammed,
submitted the commission’s report to the governor.

Shema was recently arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, before Justice Maikaita Bako of the State High Court, Katsina on a 22-count charge of criminal breach of trust, forgery and abuse of office.

And Masari stated that, “Now that the commission of inquiry has established that over N50.5 billion is looted, we shall use all legal means to recover the money.

“The looted funds belong to the people of Katsina State and we are ready to follow due process in the courts to retrieve the money from the officials of the past administration.

“The people of Katsina State need the money back so that it can beused to provide social amnesties to them. We are determined to retrieve the funds from those that looted same and no amount of legal
huddles will prevent us from collecting the state money.

“The commission of inquiry has used legal procedures to unearth the financial scandals from the documents that were presented before it.

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“The state government will use the facts that were presented before the commission of inquiry to prosecute those that committed the offence.

“The Katsina State government has no intention to leave the money. All those involved will have to return the money”, Masari said.

According to the chairman of the commission 12 memoranda were received
during the investigation. Three of the memoranda he said were abandoned by the writers while two were disqualified for lack of relevance to the investigation.

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However, eight of the memoranda Muhammed said were useful to the
commission as they disclosed how state funds were diverted by the officials of the past administration.

Muhammed said, “During the six months of the commission’s sitting, it discovered that N50.5 billion belonging to the Katsina government had been diverted by ex-Gov. Shema and his cohorts.

“The commission discovered concrete evidences that indicated that the funds had been diverted as they were not in the state government accounts as the records of the handing over notes had indicated.

“The commission went through the handing over notes where the monies were allegedly available but we could not trace them”.

 

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