A group, Nigerian Youth Initiative for Good Governance, NYIGG, has refuted corruption allegations against some officials of the Kogi State Government, saying the probe was a wild goose chase.
The EFCC had since arraigned Governor Yahaya Bello’s nephew, Ali Bello, alongside other government officials over alleged money laundering in the state.
But the group, in a statement on Wednesday by its coordinator, Mustapha Abdullahi, lamented that it was becoming worrisome that an agency with a clear-cut mandate “is hell-bent on criminalising a man with no proof of financial impropriety.
“What is more flabbergasting and latently discombobulating is the fact that the agency – EFCC is engaging in a wanton abandon of its core responsibility, jettisoning its primary function to dwell on impunity. This is nothing short of political vendetta which will end up feckless anyway.
“The question on the lips of every discerning mind is that when has it become the business of the anti-graft agency to monitor how a state (in a federal system of government) spends its funds. Such function is exclusively that of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC).
“Let it be placed on record that what the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recently did in Kogi State by arresting some officials of the State Government on a trumped-up charge is not only antithetical to its very Act (Section 46 of the EFCC Act) that empowers it, but also flagrant abuse of the ‘Rule of Law’.
“Any attempt by the agency to extend its powers beyond the provisions in Section 46 of the EFCC Act requires that the agency approach the National Assembly to demand more powers,” the group noted.
Mr Abdullahi noted that the state is peaceful and developing, hence, the EFCC should not be a clog in the wheel of this development.
“We are not unaware that this whole move by the anti-corruption Commission was masterminded and a calculated attempt by enemies of the State for political advantage. And we want to tell them categorically that as usual, this is dead on arrival!,” he added.
