Governor
Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has called on the President Muhammadu Buhari led
government to publish all the looted property it has recovered, in addition to
names of those they were recovered from, before selling them (assets) off.
In a
statement issued on Wednesday by his Special Assistant on Public Communication
and New Media, Lere Olayinka, the governor also said that the government should
endeavour to publish the names of the buyers after they are eventually sold.
The
governor, who noted that Nigerians were no longer interested in being governed
by propaganda, said:
“Nigerians
want to know how many properties were recovered and who bought the properties.
Who authorized the sale? Nigerians want details, not propaganda because most of
these properties have been sold and resold.”
He advised
the federal government to create a website where all the properties recovered
by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and to whom they were
sold would be listed.
The governor
said it was no longer possible to trust the EFCC’s reports on recovered looted
funds and properties.
“How can
Nigerians continue to trust the position of the same EFCC that said in April
2016 that the allegation of corruption against Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT)
Chairman, Danladi Umar was mere suspicion and would be difficult to prove in
court, but now charged the same CCT chairman to court on the allegation it
described as mere suspicion?” Mr. Fayose questioned.
“On November
23, 2017, Senator Emmanuel Paulker, the Chairman of the Senate committee
investigating the botched reinstatement and promotion of the former Chairman of
the Presidential Task Force on Pensions, Ibrahim Maina told Nigerians on the
floor of the Senate that almost all the exotic properties recovered from
alleged looters of Pension Funds had already been re-looted by officials of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
“Last year
November also, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN),
while testifying before the National Assembly alleged that one of the
properties recovered from alleged looters of Pension Funds was already sold to
a Lagos lawyer.
“How are we
now sure that the same people who re-looted the recovered pension loots have
not also looted the recovered properties the President said will be sold?”
Speaking
further, Governor Fayose said; “The federal government cannot continue to tell
Nigerians stories without background. The era of Baba has said is gone in
Nigeria. The era of the president acting like a lord of the manor is gone, we
are in a democracy.
“Many people
were blackmailed and coerced to surrender their properties. A typical case is
the one on Malabu Oil where people have been scandalized, harassed and their
names destroyed via media trial and the Attorney General of the Federation now
come out to say that there is not enough evidence to try them. What will now
happen to the lies told against those people?
“The federal
government should, therefore, publish and state clearly what has happened in
the EFCC between 2006 and now. Nigerians need to know the recovered properties
sold by Ibrahim Magu’s predecessor, Ibrahim Lamorde and other previous EFCC
chairmen. Those who bought them should be made public too.”
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