The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has confirmed the arrest of a former Senate President and one time Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Pius Ayim.
Ayim was allegedly arrested for collecting N520m from the embattled former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), on the eve of the 2015 presidential election and giving N13bn contracts to companies linked to him.
The former SGF, who also served as the Senate President from 2000 to 2003, is the most senior former government official ever to be arrested by the EFCC after he refused to honour an invitation.
The commission was said to have obtained a search warrant and stormed his house on Thursday evening and searched the entire house and arrested him.
The source said, “Anyim was arrested on Thursday, November 16, by operatives of the anti-graft agency after he failed to honour a 10 am appointment by the agency. The arrest took Anyim by surprise as the EFCC team, armed with a warrant, immediately executed a search on the property during which they recovered documents relevant to the investigation.
“Anyim is accused of abuse of office, misappropriation of public funds and money laundering. Apart from false assets declaration, he received N520m from the ONSA on the eve of the 2015 general elections for unclear reasons and he also used proxies and companies in which he had interest to corner contracts from the Ecological Fund.”
The source said Anyim allegedly awarded contracts to some companies linked to him through which ecological funds were diverted.
The source added, “Anyim was SGF from May 2011 to May 29, 2015. During this period, specifically from May 2012 to May 2015, the SGF Ecological Fund Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria received an inflow of N58, 146,983,677.85.
“From this fund, three of the companies linked to Anyim — Foundation Years, Obis Associate and Eldyke Engineering — received contracts worth over N13bn. Foundation Years alone received a net payment of N10,308,017,838.85 between 2014 and 2015.
“Curiously, on receiving the fund, Foundation Years and another Anyim company, Br-Kthru, made several transfers to 37 entities. Some of the organisations and individuals have no nexus at all with ecological issues. Investigators are probing the reasons behind the wild disbursement.”
With quotes from Punch
