The Ekiti State
Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has challenged the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC, to charge the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,
National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, to court if the commission
has evidence of fraud against him.
"The EFCC appears
to be operating a system in which an accused person is first arrested,
detained endlessly while the anti-corruption agency goes about looking
for evidence," the governor said.
Mr. Fayose, who
maintained his support for a genuine fight against corruption,
challenged the EFCC to also act on petitions submitted to it against All
Progressives Congress chieftains and President Buhari's election
sponsors.
Speaking through
his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere
Olayinka, on Friday, Mr. Fayose cautioned that nothing untoward must
happen to Mr. Metuh, adding that the APC's desperation to decimate and
silence the opposition has dragged the Buhari-led government in the mud
of lawlessness.
The governor said, "In saner climes, you don't arrest people for alleged fraud and start to look for evidence to prosecute them.
"However, what we
are witnessing in Nigeria today is a situation whereby the EFCC will
arrest PDP leaders, humiliate them by subjecting them to media trial,
detain them for weeks in the process of trying to force them to make
statements during which the commission will be looking for evidence.
"For instance, in
the case of Metuh, we are being told that the EFCC is insisting that he
must write statements and one begins to wonder if it has now become
mandatory for an accused to write statements in law enforcement agent's
custody. Shouldn't the EFCC have simply charged Metuh to court based on
its own evidence? Or is Metuh's statement the evidence the EFCC requires
to prosecute him?
"The international
community, especially the United Nations (UN), African Union (AU),
European Union (EU) and others are put on notice on this condemnable act
of arresting and detaining opposition leaders by agents of the
Buhari-led government before fishing for evidence."
While challenging
the President Buhari to extend his anti-corruption crusade to those who
sponsored his election, Governor Fayose said any anti-corruption effort
that targets only members of the opposition and those with axe to grind
with the government of the day can never succeed.
"If President
Buhari did not wait for any petition to move against PDP chieftains,
asking people to come forward with allegations of corruption against APC
chieftains, especially those who sponsored President Buhari's election
is clearly hypocritical.
"Most importantly,
that the EFCC Acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu even said the commission do
not have any petition against APC chieftains when indeed there are loads
of petitions against ministers serving in Buhari's government and other
notable APC chieftains goes to show the hypocrisy of the fight against
corruption.
"It is even more
hypocritical and anti-democratic for the President to have turned
himself to the accuser, prosecutor and judge, carrying on as if those he
accused of corruption have already been convicted," the governor said.
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