Petitioner Accuses Cross River Assembly Woman Hon. Itam Abang, Of Fraud, Writes ICPC

By CrossRiverWatch admin

Hon. Itam V. Abang, member Cross River State House of Assembly representing Boki 1 State constituency has been accused of fraud in a petition to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

Chief Ferdinand Bette Enu, the petitioner through his legal counsel, A. A. Malami, SAN and Co. in a petition to Mr. Ekpo Nta, Executive Chairman of ICPC dated February 24th 2015, stated that, “At the instance of our client to report to you for investigation in your capacity as Chairman of ICPC, the fraudulent payment of salary in the months of January, February and March 2008 by the authority of the University of Calabar (UNICAL) Cross River State to one Dr. Itam Abang even though she was no longer a staff of the university”.

Furthermore, the petitioner revealed that, “Dr. Abang was a lecturer in the Organized Research Institute (IPPA) of the University of Calabar until she was appointed a Director in the Cross River State Rural Development Agency (CRS-RUDA) in or about November, 2007 by the Governor of Cross River State”.

Consequently, according to the petition which was obtained by CrossRiverWatch, Hon. Abang applied to the authority of the University of Calabar to grant her leave of absence without pay which was granted. After technically ceasing to be a staff of the institution, “she was fraudulently paid and she indeed collected the salaries for the month of January, February and March 2008”.

Simultaneously, the petitioner disclosed that: “Contemporaneously, Dr. Abang was also fraudulently paid and she indeed collected salary from Cross River State Rural Development Agency for the months of March and April 2008 respectively”.

Chief Ferdinand appealed to ICPC to kindly investigate his allegations in the interest of justice and to also determine the culpability or otherwise of Hon. Itam who is the Chairman, House of Assembly Committee on Education.

CrossRiverWatch made repeated efforts to reach Hon. Itam to comment on the allegation but the efforts hadn’t yielded any result at the time of filing this report.