The anti-graft Agency, is investigating the transaction of the said sum, which was supposedly withdrawn over the counter, in the last three years.
Recall that the EFCC had invited and quizzed the Managing Director of Zenith Bank Peter Amangbo, over the alleged transaction.
The anti-graft Agency, is also seeking to quiz four Officials of the State, who were central to the withdrawals.
However, Nyesom Wike, the Rivers State Governor, had saidthat the investigation is “politically motivated”.
He stated that until the EFCC approaches the Court of Appeal, to set aside the 2007 judgment barring the Commission from investigating the State, his officials would not honour its summons.
Nonetheless, the EFCC, according to The Nation Newspaper, has obtained a court warrant to arrest the Officials, and may declare them wanted, if the move to arrest them fails.
The suspects were alleged to have gone underground, following the decision of the State Government to not hand them over to the EFCC.
“The EFCC is also now empowered by the law to watch-list these State officials, which will makes it possible to pick them up in any part of the country and abroad”, the report quoted sources as saying.
“So, we are now on the trail of the affected Officials. But, if they remain underground, we may declare them wanted.”
“None of the Officials has immunity from arrest, investigation, and prosecution.”
“The reference to a 2007 court order by the Rivers State Government, is just a desperate attempt to cling at any straw.
“We have records to show that when Governor Nyesom Wike was Chief of Staff at the same Government House, he was invited, interrogated, and detained by the EFCC, on June 10, 2008.
“As a law-abiding Agency, the EFCC will continue to do its work without fear or favour. We will get to the root of the illegal withdrawal of N117 billion in cash, and without official records.”