EFCC grills ex-HoS, Oronsaye, invites Aliero, Yerima

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has interrogated a former Head of Service of the Federation, Mr. Stephen Oronsaye, in relation with the ongoing investigation into the alleged multi billion naira pension scam in the country.

Investigations on Wednesday revealed that the former Head of Service honoured an invitation by the commission when he appeared at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja about 9am.

An operative of the commission, who confided in our correspondent, said that operatives were still interrogating him in relation with the pension scam as of the time of filing this report by 6.30pm.

“He was not picked up; he was invited and he came on his own. He came very early; I cannot be specific but it was as early as 9am.

“The commission invited him because he was the Head of Service of the Federation when the pension scam occurred.”

The Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed the interrogation of the former Head of Service on the telephone to our correspondent.

He said, “Yes he is with us; I can confirm to you that the former Head of Service is with us.”

It will be recalled that the former Head of Service had some months ago faulted allegations against him.

He had said, “Through my years of practice, I have been guided by my firm belief in due process and accountability.

“By normal federal auditing procedure, where an audit has been carried out, audit observations made are forwarded to the auditee/entity for a comment/response. Ideally, those in office are expected to comment on audit observations regarding an entity. However, if they are unable to comment/respond then the proper procedure is for the observations to be passed on to those that were in the office covered by the audit, provided the persons are alive. I can confirm that no one has reached out to me in that regard.”

Investigations also revealed that a former Governor of Kebbi State, Adamu Aliero, had been invited to appear before the EFCC on Thursday.

It was further gathered that another ex-Governor of Zamfara State, Senator Ahmed Yerima, had also been invited by the commission to respond to corruption-related issues next week.

The EFCC operative could not give the exact date that Yerima would be a guest of the commission.