FORMER Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, on Friday refuted claims that his account was frozen by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Ambode, in a statement, through his media aide Habib Aruna, disclosed that the said accounts reportedly frozen by the federal high court belonged to the Lagos state government and was not associated with him.

“Those accounts were opened in the course of normal operations by the Lagos State Government for its administrative purposes and not for the former governor’s personal transactions as was being wrongly insinuated and have been operated to ensure smooth operations of government activities by previous and present administrations,” the statement said.

On Tuesday, the federal high court, sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos had ordered the freezing of the sum of N9.9bn belonging to the Lagos State Government.

Justice Chuka Obiozor, the presiding judge gave the order, to freeze the accounts following an ex-parte application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

However, the statement reads, “The former governor was not and will never be involved in any unauthorized use of government property and resources”.

He said he won’t confront the EFCC because there was no communication between him and the antigraft agency.  However, he emphasized that his family and loved ones did not deserve the “unwarranted attacks on his well-earned reputation”.

The EFCC had traced N9,927,714,443.29 from the state accounts into an FCMB bank account opened on September 17, 2018, during the administration of the immediate past governor of the state, Akinwunmi Ambode, and operated by Adewale Adesanya.

Adesanya is the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Chief of Staff to the former governor, Ambode.

The antigraft agency disclosed that Adesanya and other signatories to the account made a fraudulent transfer from the accounts of the Lagos State Government and dispersed the funds kept in the said accounts.