Photo: Yari
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested a former governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, in connection with the agency’s ongoing investigation of suspended Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris.
Yari was arrested on Sunday at his residence in Abuja days after he won unopposed the ruling APC’s ticket for Zamfara West senatorial election
The AGF under criminal investigation, has been in the EFCC custody since May 16 facing allegations of corruption to the tune of N80 billion.
Investigators are working with the lead that he allegedly conspired with others to steal public funds which, by his role, he was meant to safeguard.
PREMIUM TIMES reports that a source confirmed that one of the suspended accountant-general’s suspected accomplices is Yari, who was arrested on Sunday.
It said that the source said suspicious transactions between Idris and Yari were “in the area of 20 billion Naira”.
Yari is not new to anti-graft law enforcement actions. Last year, he was repeatedly held and questioned by the EFCC over allegations that he criminally diverted billions in Zamfara’s funds kept in a bank.
Yari was governor of Zamfara State, an impoverished Nigerian northwestern state, between 2011 and 2019. Under his reign, terrorist outlaws, commonly called bandits, started ravaging communities.
The report of an investigative panel commissioned by Yari’s successor Bello Matawalle had earlier indicted Yari for mismanaging the ethnic conflict between Hausa and Fulani communities, leading to the armed banditry that has been ravaging the north-west geopolitical zone and beyond.
