I'll restructure the EFCC when I become President–Fayose @

Ado-Ekiti- Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele
Fayose has described EFCC as a
‘senseless’ organization, in dire need of
restructuring.

Fayose, who vowed to overhaul the anti-
graft agency, said, “By the grace of God, I
will restructure the EFCC when I become the
president of this nation. I will reorganize EFCC
and make it looks responsible. They detained
me in 2008, but I won them in court , because the most high God was on my side. “EFCC is senseless body, because if they are
not senseless , it should have known that the
man who wrote the petition had been sacked
because he didn’t deserve to be called a
civil servant. The arrest of my officials was
orchestrated by Ekiti indigenes in collaboration with the EFCC. “I will never go and beg EFCC, it will rather
beg me. I won’t negotiate anything because
I am not afraid of them. There was a
subsisting court that barred them from
arresting any official of this state, but they
breached the law. Fayose, who stated this on Thursday during a
grand reception organised for his aides who
were arrested by the EFCC, promised to buy
new cars for the two officials in appreciation
of their loyalty to the state. The arrested Ekiti State Commissioner for
Finance , Mr Toyin Ojo and the Accountant
General, Mrs Yemisi Owolabi , have disclosed
that they could not be charged to court by the
anti-graft agency because the petition written
against them lacked substance. They said the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) practically begged them to
leave detention when the agency knew that
they committed no offence to have
warranted arrest, saying “we yielded after
much pleadings from top EFCC staff”. The duo said the petition written by a former
labour leader , whose name was not
mentioned, claiming that the state
mismanaged the Paris Club and bailouts
allocated to it by the federal government
was bereft of substantial evidence that could be used to prosecute them . They said the petition was written basically
to tarnish the government of Mr Ayodele
Fayose, who had directed the workers to
observe yesterday as a half work day in
honour of the freed officials Ojo said : “I want to thank our governor
and Ekiti people, particularly workers for
their prayers. The EFCC found it difficult to
prosecute us because they lacked evidence. “Fayose by his conduct boxed EFCC to a
corner, because you needed not fear when
you committed no crime. By our arrests, it
was clear that EFCC has become an
instrument of oppression. “Some states took more than the bailout
taken by Ekiti but nothing was done, what is
their interest in Ekiti? “They asked us to sign so that we can leave
the detention but we refused. They started
begging us before we left”, he said. The Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon
Kola Oluwawole and the Chairman of the
Nigeria Labour Congress, Com Ade Adesanmi
, alleged that the EFCC was still planning to
arrest more officials, saying the state will
resist such attempt with the last drop of their blood. Oluwawole described EFCC as a meddlesome
interloper, saying Sections 126 and 127 of the
1999 constitution empowered the assembly
to perform oversight functions on state
finances and not the statutory duty of the
agency. “They said the NNPC Group Managing
Director awarded $25b contracts illegally, the
EFCC did nothing. Even the presidency has
been the one defending him now. What is
their interest in Ekiti? Whose interest is EFCC protecting?”, Fayose asked. Fayose accused President Muhammadu
Buhari of punishing the citizens of this state
illegally, saying : “he has not tarred one
kilometer of road since he came into office. “This was the way the DSS arrested Hon
Afolabi Akanni . They even stopped the state
allocation at a time, but whatever they do,
Ekiti shall put them to shame”, the
governor said.