EFCC arrests PSC director over alleged N600m fraud

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has picked up the Director of Administration at the Police Service Commission, Emmanuel Ibe, for an alleged N600m fraud.

Ibe was detained last week following a petition by some members of the Police Service Commission Cooperative Society that he allegedly collected millions of naira from them meant to be used to purchase land.

Some members of the cooperative society were said to have also introduced their families and friends to the scheme.

After several months of waiting, however, the petitioners said they did not receive the land they had paid for and that all efforts to get a refund from Ibe, who is the chairman of the cooperative, proved abortive.

Spokesman for the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, who confirmed that the suspect was in EFCC custody, said Ibe was arraigned by the ICPC on nine counts before Justice C. N. Oji of the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Apo, Abuja.

“It is true. He (Ibe) was arrested and he is in our custody,” Uwujaren said.

Ibe had pleaded guilty but was not suspended from duty contrary to civil service rules.Counsel for the ICPC, Golden Iwuagwu, while pressing the charge against the director, alleged that the director fraudulently paid N11,750,000 to some selected staff of the PSC in March 2015 as air fare and airport taxi allowances to travel from Abuja to seven states within Nigeria on official duties even while there were no connecting flights from Abuja to any of those states.

Reacting, however, Head, Public Relations Unit of the PSC, Mr. Ikechukwu Ani, said the matter had nothing to do with the commission.

Ani added, “The cooperative (society) is a distinct body from the commission. The commission is a government body while the cooperative is a voluntary association; it has nothing to do with the PSC.

“Okiro has nothing to do with the matter. He has never tried to subdue any investigation. He is the chairman of the board and decisions are taken at plenary, not by one man.”