Following the arrest of the Ekiti State Commissioner for Finance, Chief Toyin Ojo and the Accountant General, Mrs Yemisi Owolabi the state governor Ayodele Fayose has described the economic and financial crimes commission EFCC as obviously living up to its status as the attack-dog of the All Progressives Congress (APC) government.
The arrest which came few hours after governor’s public declaration of his intention to run for the office of the president in the 2019 general election has sparked up reactions from well-meaning Nigerians
The governor in a statement through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, yesterday while describing the development as irresponsibility on the part of anti-corruption agency said he cannot be intimidated.
Speaking through Olayinka the governor said it is obvious that the hawks around President Muhammadu Buhari are afraid of Governor Ayodele Fayose’s declaration to contest the presidential election in 2019, hence the usual panicky measure of arresting government officials in Ekiti on the day of his declaration, with the view to embark on another round of media trial against the governor and his government.
The governor who challenged the EFCC to tell Nigerians what has been done to the loads of petitions written against the immediate past APC government of Dr Kayode Fayemi, said “it is funny that the EFCC, in the bid to carry out its usual hatchet job against Governor Fayose, failed to take into cognizance the subsisting court order, which forbids any official of the Ekiti State government from being arrested by the EFCC”.
Speaking further the governor said “What has the EFCC done to those involved in the grass-cutting scam and the $43 million Ikoyi scam, Like we have said before, the game plan of those who want power in Ekiti State by force as well as those who do not want anyone to speak against President Buhari, that they see as a god, is to stifle Ekiti State government and make it impossible for the government to carry out its responsibilities. However, the EFCC and its collaborators should know that we have threaded this path before and we, in the government of Ekiti State won’t be intimidated by the irresponsibility of a federal government anti-corruption agency that has come to see itself as instrument of harassing, oppressing, intimidating and coercing perceived opposition figures. On this one, let us tell these agents of the devil in the EFCC and those they are working for that as usual, they have taken on a wrong customer. This is because the more they run after Governor Fayose, the more they hit their heads on the Rock of Ages and get themselves fatally injured.”
