Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers,
says officials of the state government will appear before the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) only if the anti-graft agency follows the
rule of law.
The EFCC had invited and quizzed
Peter Amangbo, managing director of Zenith Bank, over alleged N117 billion
transaction by the state government in the past three years.
The anti-graft agency is also
seeking to quiz four officials of the state who were central to the
withdrawals.
Speaking at the state government
house in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, Wike said the EFCC is “full of impunity”.
“I am not interested whether EFCC
backs off or not. I am not against the EFCC fighting corruption, if at all they
are fighting corruption. My concern is we must do it according to the law,” he
said.
“The law says that we have a
federation comprising the federal government, the states and the LGAs. We go to
the monthly federal allocation when money comes to the federation and all tiers
take their share. The federal government is now saying that the money that
comes to states will be monitored.
“I was not here in 2007. Rivers
state government went to court against the EFCC to say the commission has no
constitutional power to interrogate the finances, the expenses of the state
government. And the matter was adequately addressed and judgment was given
against EFCC.
“Since 2007, EFCC has been
struggling to appeal the judgment. EFCC has not succeeded up till now. What
they are doing now is when they feel a government is not pro-Buhari, ‘let’s do
this’.”
He wondered why the EFCC was
allowed to freeze the accounts of Benue and Akwa Ibom state governments,
insisting that the agency is being used as a tool by the federal government to
fight opposition.
“Nobody will appear before the
EFCC until they follow the rule of law. This country must not allow personal
interest of individuals. That is a coup against the interest of Nigeria,” he
said.
WHY IS EFCC PROBING RIVERS GOVERNMENT?
An EFCC detective had narrated
how the alleged withdrawals were made by officials of the state government.
“The bulk of the money was
collected by one official over the counter with as many as 45 to 50 cheques
issued in one day,” he had said.
“The records retrieved showed
that on June 8, 2015, about N450 million was cashed over the counter through 45
cheques with each cheque worth N10 million,” he said.
“The same thing was done on June
9, 2015 when N500 million was cashed in bits of N10 million. There is no record
of what the cash was used for.”
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