Sixteen local government chairmen of Kwara State have been arrested and are currently being quizzed by operatives at the Ilorin Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged misappropriation of part of N4 billion loan and ten per cent of the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

The local government chairmen include Risikat Opakunle, Saidu Yaru Musa, Umar Belle, Ayeni Dallas, Fatai Adeniyi Garba, Lah Abdulmumeen, Raliat Funmi Salau, Aminat Omodara and Muyiwa Oladipo.

Others are Oladipo Omole, Abdullahi Abubakar Bata, Saka Eleyele, Lateef Gbadamosi, Oni Adebayo Joseph, Omokanye Joshua Olatunji and Jibril Salihu.

It was gathered that the council chiefs after securing the controversial loan held a meeting and decided that one hundred million naira be shared among themselves.

The suspects had on February 7, 2018 written a N4bn loan request to the Ilorin Branch Manager of Sterling Bank to pay the salary arrears of teachers under the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Local Government Staff and Local Government Pensioners.

The embattled politicians were also accused of diverting ten percent of the monthly internally generated revenue for their personal use which was paid direct into their personal accounts against the Financial Regulations.

EFCC Head, Media & Publicity, Wilson Uwujaren, said yesterday evening: “All the suspects have made useful statements, as investigation continues.”