ICPC Takes REA Official to Court over N298m Scam

REA official charged by ICPC with N298 million theft

Usman Kwakwa, a representative of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), has been charged by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) with siphoning N298 million via the agency's payment gateway.

On Thursday, June 7, Kwakwa was charged with four felonies at a federal high court in Abuja.

He is one among numerous officers at the agency implicated in fraud totaling over N1.2 billion.

The ICPC has separately charged at least five agency officers, Kwakwa included, for varying amounts of money they allegedly stole from the agency in March 2023.

Kwakwa was given N50 million in bail after entering a not guilty plea to the four counts.

He begged the judge to issue a bench warrant for their arrest.

“The defendant decided not to come to court. I am convinced that the defendant deliberately absented himself from court.” Nwite ruled.

The three accused were to be taken into custody, according to a brief ruling by Presiding Judge Emeka Nwite.

The arraignments of Titus and Karaye were scheduled for June 13 by Nwite, and Okojie's was scheduled for June 14.

The defendants were charged separately by the ICPC, who claimed that they had transferred agency funds to their personal accounts in installments using the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) payment mechanism.

The national rural settlements were supposed to receive energy with the use of public monies.

President Bola Tinubu approved the managing director of REA, Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad, and three executive directors of the agency's indefinite suspension in March. This decision was made in response to the results of a thorough examination into the agency's financial actions.

However, Ahmad's name did not surface in any of the ICPC's charges. He hasn't been called back from suspension yet.