The Vice-Chancellor of Federal University, Gusau, Zanfara State, Professor Magaji Garba, is currently in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) over alleged N260million contract scam.
He was detained by the agency on Thursday, January 28 after he honoured an invitation in relation to his involvement in an alleged case of abuse of office, corrupt practices, and contract scam.
A competent source at the anti-graft agency said the VC, sometime in 2018 fraudulently obtained the N260, 000,000 from a contractor, Alhaji Shehu Sambo, owner of Ministaco Nigeria Limited, on the pretext that the University was going to award his company a contract worth N3 billion for the construction of perimeter Wall Fence around the institution. The contract did not materialize.
As at press time, Garba was still being grilled by investigators of the EFCC, who are interested in knowing what happened to the money. EFCC Head, Media, and Publicity, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed the arrest but did not give further details.
Some time ago, a staff of the University accused the Garba of corruption and disregard for due process in the award of contracts and requested for an investigation into the matter.
In a petition signed by N.S Dantala on behalf of concerned members of the University, the petitioners said that Professor Garba ignored the professional advice of the University Bursar, Internal Auditor, and Director of Works on issues surrounding the award of contracts and payments of existing contracts. However, Garba, who spoke through the Information Officer of the university, Umar Usman, dismissed the allegations as baseless.
