FG appoints Nwabuoku to oversee accountant-general’s office amid Idris’ ‘fraud probe’

The federal government has approved the appointment of Anamekwe Nwabuoku to oversee the office of the accountant-general of the federation (OAGF).

The appointment was announced in a statement issued on Sunday by Yunusa Abdullahi, spokesperson to Zainab Ahmed, the minister of finance.

Nwabuoku’s appointment comes amid a probe into allegations of N80 billion fraud linked to Ahmed Idris, accountant-general of the federation.

Idris was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on May 16 — the anti-graft agency said he had refused to honour invitations to answer questions on the fraud allegations.

The accountant-general general was subsequently suspended by the finance minister days after his arrest.

According to the statement issued on Sunday, Nwabuoku’s appointment was contained “in a letter dated 20th May, 2022 and signed by Aliyu Ahmed, Permanent Secretary (Finance), Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning”.

The appointment will also be in effect “pending the outcome of the investigation”.

“In this position, Mr. Anamekwe is expected to carry out his duty in strict compliance with extant rules and observe the highest sense of professionalism expected of an officer working at his level,” the statement reads.

“Mr. Anamekwe was born on 15th October, 1962 to the family of Mr. Robert O. Anamekwe in Ehime Mbano Local Government Area of Imo State. He holds Higher National Diploma (HND) in Accountancy from the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) Enugu, and Master of Science (M.Sc) in Financial Management from Commonwealth University, Belize.

“He started his civil service career with the Centre for Democratic Studies (CDS) and rose to the position of Principal Accountant between 1992 and 1995. He was deployed to the Office of the AGF, Abuja, from 1996 to 2001 as Assistant Chief Accountant. He served at the National Assembly, Office of the Senate President, from 2001 to 2003 as Special Assistant to the Senate President on Public Affairs and his duties included Advisory Services to the Senate President on Media and other issues.

“He assumed duty as Chief Accountant in the Ministry of Defence Headquarters, Abuja and served as Head of Accounts Administration. Following his promotion to Assistant Director, Accounts, he was placed in charge of Funds in the Ministry from 2009 to 2012.

“He became a Deputy Director (Accounts) in 2012 and was deployed to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) as Supervisory Officer of Ecological Funds Accounts and other related matters.

“He was promoted to Director (Accounts) in 2017 and was posted to Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation. He was the Director (Finance and Accounts), Ministry of Defence Headquarters, Abuja, from May 2019 to March, 2021.”

According to the statement, Nwabuoku is currently the director, inspectorate office of the accountant-general of the federation.