The Benue State Government has announced the recovery of over N4.8 billion from the 107billion Naira allegedly looted by 52 officials of the immediate past government of Gabriel Suswam.
The officials were allegedly indicted by Justice Elizabeth Kpojime, Commission of Inquiry.
Governor Samuel Ortom, who made this disclosure, said the recoveries include the N4.5 billion capital market bond fraud, involving a new generation bank, compelled by the Security and Exchange Commission to make the refund, while San Calos Limited, one of the indicted companies, refunded N370 million to the state government.
The governor, while addressing newsmen on Wednesday alleged that “Those who are willing to make a refund, we will accept refund and we will exonerate them, for instance, San Carlos refunded N370 Million, we have also recently recovered money that was diverted which the Justice Elizabeth Kpojime report also mentions.
“The N4.5 Billion which the previous government collected for projects and diverted to pay for overdraft, that money has been credited to our account and further paid to the contractors that the prospectus originally indicated, that has been done and we also discovered that all the documents which the previous government used in securing that overdraft were forged.
“There is no corresponding facts to what is in the file and the state executive council minutes with regards to the overdraft and so we are going to prosecute all those people. We are waiting for as many who are willing to make restitution, we are also willing to forgive them and move on with issues of governance”.
