This was revealed by the  Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC).

An official of the Rural Electrification Agency has been accused of diverting the agency’s fund into his personal company’s accounts.

This was revealed by the  Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC).

The commission through an investigator Bariki Zaknayaba told the court how Usman Kwakwa, one of the staff of Rural Electrification Agency (REA), used his personal company to allegedly divert the agency’s funds.

The presiding judge, Justice Emeka Nwite of a Federal High Court, Abuja while being led in evidence by the anti-corruption commission’s lawyer, Osuobeni Akponimisingha was told that during the course of the ICPC investigation, it was discovered that the sum of N130 million and N85 million, totaling N215 million, which belonged to REA was unlawfully paid into Bizairabbi General Supply and Co Ltd’s bank account, a company owned by Kwakwa, between March and June 2023.

Another  N97 million was alleged to have been paid into Kwakwa’s Zenith Bank account within the same period under the pretense of payments for project monitoring exercise.

According to Daily Trust, he said the money formed part of the N1.2 billion allegedly misappropriated by some senior workers in the Finance and Account Department of the organisation, including Abubakar Sambo, Director of Finance and Account of the agency.

It was also alleged that several petitions were received from non-governmental organisation and National Assembly concerning the activities of the top senior staff of the organisation.

“The head of the Investigation Department assigned the petitions to our team for investigation. The team drafted a strategy and it was approved. The petition is on embezzlement of N1.2 billion against the management of Rural Electrification Agency,” he said.

The investigation team wrote letters to some banks, including Zenith Bank, First Bank, Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB) and United Bank for African (UBA Bank) to request for the bank statements and account opening packages in relation to the investigation.

“Investigation revealed that from March 2023 and June 2023, the sum of N97 million was paid into the defendant’s Zenith Bank account. Also, from March to June 2023, the sum of N130 million and another N85 million was paid into the defendant’s company’s account with the name, Bizairabbi General Supply and Co Ltd.

“During the same period, in March and June, some money was transferred to the defendant’s account by the accounting officer of Rural Electrification Agency. All these payments were made from the GIFMIS (Government Integrated Financial Management Information System) platform of Rural Electrification Agency. This payment was made in the narration; Payment for Project Monitoring,” the witness said.

Zaknayaba told the court that during the investigation, it was revealed that there was no written approval by the agency’s authority for the payments made.

When the lawyer asked him how could the payments should have been, the investigator said: “A formal procedure starts with a memo by the managing director for approval.

“If the MD approved the request, it will be transmitted to Finance and Account where payments vouchers will be raised. After raising the payment vouchers, the approval and payment vouchers will be forwarded to the initiator.

“The initiator will use the documents to input in the computer system. The same documents and the payment initiated in the system will be forward to the reviewer. The reviewer will review the documents and if he is okay with it, he will then forward it to the finalizer who will go through the documents and finalise the payment,” he explained