EFFC arrests Francis Ayade,brother to the Governor of Cross River State

Premium Times is reporting that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested a brother to the Governor of Cross River state on his alleged involvement in a N2.4billion contract scam.



It quoted EFCC sources as saying that the man, Francis Ayade was arrested on Tuesday, August 23 in connection with the scam.

Francis, who is the managing director of Leophina Nigeria Limited and Hally Brown International Limited, was accused of allegedly taking part in shady deals involving diversion of public funds into his companies’ accounts.

The EFCC sources said investigations by the commission’s operatives showed that Hally Brown International Limited was awarded a road construction contract to the tune of N2.4billion in 2011 and Francis allegedly took a loan of N350,000,000 (three hundred and fifty million naira) from First Bank Plc, on behalf of Cross Rivers Rural Access and Mobility Project, to finance the contract.

Premium Times reports that the loan was not utilised for the contract, but transferred into the Mobility Project.

Francis was also fingered in alleged shady deals that involved one Obudu Micro Finance Bank and an official of the EFCC told Premium Times that “Specifically, four different allocations from the Federation Accounts were alleged to have been diverted into Hally Brown International Limited’s account owned by him.”

EFCC insiders said investigations are ongoing into the matter while the Cross River state government is yet to comment on the allegations as at Wednesday, August 24 morning.

Meanwhile, a Swedish firm, Greenland Resources on Thursday, August 18, announced plans to establish a pulp mill that will generate a total of 1.5 million tones yearly.

Announcing the plans at the governor’s conference room in Calabar, Torbjorn Johansson, the leader of the team and President of the firm, said they needed degraded land to establish the pulp mill.