Ekiti
State Governor Ayodele Fayose has accused the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC, of being a tool used to promote a vendetta
against opponents of the All Progressives Congress, APC, government of
President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, July
12, 2016, signed by a media aide to the Ekiti governor, Lere Olayinka,
Fayose disclosed that officials of the EFCC invaded a popular guest
house on Gana Street in high-brow Maitama District in Abuja with the
intention of sealing it based on a mere rumour that the place belonged
to the Governor Fayose.
According to the statement, the Fayose
stays in the guest house when he is in Abuja and such the EFCC thought
the place belonged to him. But, when the agency’s operatives got to the
property, they were confronted with the fact that the operator of the
guest house leased the property from the owner for ten years. The EFCC
operatives moved to the next property only to discover that belongs to a
retired military general.
Fayose accused the anti-graft agency of
conducting its investigation by “trial and error” saying that it is only
in Nigeria that a law enforcement agency would arrest a suspect, then
begin looking for evidence to use in prosecuting the person.
“Today [Tuesday, July 12, 2016], the
EFCC demonstrated that it has been lying against Governor Fayose and
other Nigerians all along by the failed attempt it made to seal off a
property located on Gana Street, Maitama, Abuja that is being used as
guest house just because the governor used to lodge there.
“It was at the point of sealing off the
property that the owner of the Guest House told the EFCC officials that
he only leased the property for ten years from its owner, a former chief
of defence staff, who was also a one-time minister of defence.
“The EFCC operatives moved to the next
building to the Guest House, which is the residence of the retired army
general and they were told by the general’s wife that the building being
used as Guest House as well the one next to it belonged to the general
and not Governor Fayose.
“It is shocking that in its desperate
bid to nail Governor Fayose so as to satisfy their paymasters, EFCC is
going about claiming that properties owned by other law abiding
Nigerians are owned by the governor and the result of this investigation
by trial and error by the EFCC is the embarrassment it faced at Gana
Street, Maitama, Abuja when its operatives went there to seal off a
property belonging to a retired army general thinking that it belonged
to the governor.
“That was the same way they told
Nigerians that they discovered mansion in Asokoro, Abuja owned by the
governor. Unknown to the EFCC, the mansion being referred to is a
property rented by the Ekiti State government and being used as
Governor’s Lodge.”
While insisting that whatever properties
owned by Governor Fayose were acquired through legitimate means, the
government said like every other Nigerians, the governor reserves the rights to own properties and can also receive money from people to fund his election.
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