TheCable

Ayodele Fayose, governor of Ekiti, says governors deserve some respect from Ibrahim Magu, acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), “and his gang”.

In a statement by Lere Olayinka, special assistant on public communications and new media to the governor, Fayose accused the EFCC of blackmailing the governors over Paris Club refund.

He said the anti-graft agency had been attacking Abdulaziz Yari, his Zamfara counterpart in an attempt to ridicule all the governors.

Yari is the chairman of the Nigerian governors’ forum (NGF).

“The EFCC is obviously blackmailing state governors on the Paris Club refunds,” the statement read.

“Governors in Nigeria deserve some level of respect from Magu and his gangs in the EFCC. Rushing to court to seek forfeiture of property on which no one had been convicted and maligning the NGF chairman is to say the least, irresponsible.

“This persistent media trial is the reason EFCC has lost most of the high-profile corruption cases at the law courts.

“For instance, EFCC was the one that investigated and it was the one that went to court to file ex-parte application, seeking interim forfeiture of N500m and $500,000 it claimed was looted from the Paris Club refunds. No defence from any of the accused.

“Yet, governor Yari is already being presented to the public as a thief by the EFCC. This irresponsibility must stop because these attacks on the person of NGF chairman by Magu and by extension the entire governors in Nigeria must stop.”

Fayose said it it was absurd that the federal government which “illegally used money belonging to the states and local governments for its own purposes” was the one giving conditions as to how the refund must be spent.