Court Orders Senator Goje’s Arrest over Alleged N25bn Scam

Court Orders Senator Goje’s Arrest over Alleged N25bn Scam

The anti-corruption war comes for another big fish after a Federal High Court sitting in Jos, Plateau State, issued a bench warrant for the arrest of a former Governor of Gombe State, Senator Danjuma Goje.

Goje is facing a multiple count charge of fraud by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to the tune of N25bn and has refused to turn up in court, prompting the arrest warrant.

In a Facebook Post Tuesday, the anti-graft agency stated that Goje might be arrested on Wednesday (today) if he failed to honour the court’s invitation.

“A Federal High Court, sitting in Jos, Plateau State, on October 4, 2016 (Tuesday) issued a bench warrant against former Governor of Gombe State, Danjuma Goje, for refusing to show up in court. The warrant is however to take effect by 8am on October 5, 2016, if he fails to show up in court again.”

Goje, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, is accused, among other things, of illegally awarding a N1bn contract for the supply of dictionaries to secondary schools while he was governor.

A prosecution witness, Salisu Abaji, said the ex-governor awarded a contract for the supply of dictionaries for over N1bn to Gombe State Universal Basic Education Board and paid 85 per cent of the contract sum upfront to the supplier as against the prescribed 15 per cent as contained in the UBEB guidelines.

Meanwhile, the acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, said the commission was focusing on preventive measures in the fight against corruption as enforcement alone was inadequate, Punch writes.

Speaking at the unveiling of the EFCC Creative Youths Initiative against Corruption in Abuja on Tuesday, Magu said, “We are the first to recognise that enforcement alone cannot win the war against corruption.  Prevention is an effective and necessary weapon that must be employed in conjunction with enforcement, and there is no group of Nigerians better equipped to wield that weapon than the youth.

He called on the youths to eschew corruption and assured that the EFCC would not relent in its effort to rid the nation of the “cankerworm.”