A member of Board of Trustees (BoT) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Prince Benjamin Apugo, has commended a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Save Abia Initiative for Change (SAI4C) for its untiring efforts in ensuring that looted funds of Abia by officials of the past administration in the state are recovered.
Prince Apugo said worthy of more commendation was the fact that the visit of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was said to have been premised on the strength of an earlier petition written to the anti- graft agency by SAI4C.
He made the commendation when members of the group, led by its spokesman, Peter Eme Echeta paid him a solidarity visit at his Nkata-Ibeku, Umuahia country home.
The SAI4C had, in a petition to EFCC with reference No. SAI/PET/001/15 dated July 3, 2015, detailed how former governor Theodore Orji and few of his cronies allegedly looted over N474 billion Abia fund.
Receipt of the petition was acknowledged by the anti-graft agency on July 8, 2015.
In response to a speech by Eme-Echeta, Apugo said nothing would be more gratifying to Abians than the day the anti-graft agency would recover the looted funds and they be channelled for the development of the state.
Prince Apugo noted that things got to a point in the life of the last administration in the state when he thought whether there were no more men in Abia. Lending support for the anti-corruption war of President Muhammadu Buhari, Apugo said his happiness was hinged on the fact that those who looted Abia funds in the last eight years would soon be made to explain their misdeeds.
“If retired and serving army generals could be called upon to account for what they did in the past, who is a common former governor that T. A. Orji would not be made to explain what he did with Abia funds when he was governor of the state?”
He said Abia people would not take it kindly with any EFCC official who would try to shield any of those involved in siphoning of the state’s funds in the last eight years. Earlier, Eme-Echeta had told Apugo that they came to thank him for what he has done for the state, by exposing the corrupt tendencies of the past administration in the state.
“All these while, we were talking about change in Abia State, Prince Apugo is the only Abian who has put in both his energy and financial resources to make sure that this change is realised. We, members of Save Abia Initiative for Change, have decided to come and thank you and to tell you to continue in your support.
“We’ve also come to inform you that the EFFC were here last week on the strength of the petition we wrote against some officials of the past administration in the state who looted Abia funds. We are here to tell you that that petition against all odds is receiving the attention of the anti-graft agency as they sent some of their officers on investigation mission to Abia. They stayed about four days and it is our hope that at the end of the day, the looted funds would be returned to Abia State for its development,” he added.
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