Punch reports that the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has declared that President Muhammadu Buhari was using an equally “corrupt” Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to fight corruption. He insisted that the President must start the corruption fight from his party and immediate aides “since charity begins at home.”
“The EFCC leaders’ opinions remain their opinions and if they are so sure of whatever information they have, they should go to court and stop subjecting Nigerians to media trial and that no amount of media trial from the same elements that orchestrated my removal in 2006 can erode my popularity among Ekiti people,” Fayose said.
The governor said any property that might be linked to him or his company was bought legitimately and they were duly declared in his assets declaration form, adding that sources of such funds were not illicit. Fayose, according to a press release on Wednesday by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, maintained that his election was funded by Zenith Bank as well as donations from friends and associates. He said:
“As a promising candidate of my party, I cannot stop Nigerians from supporting my election like every other candidate of other political parties, including President Buhari.”
Fayose said since the money he got for his election was from legitimate sources and not from the Office of the National Security Adviser as being concocted, how the money was spent remained his own business and not that of anyone. The governor also debunked the reported allegation by the EFCC that he received bribes from some contractors in Ekiti.
“If they have anything against me, they should keep their gun powder dry, because in 2006 when they took me to court, their allegations crumbled like a pack of cards because court decisions are founded on facts and law, and not on media trial as currently being done by the EFCC as tele-guided by the APC leaders in their desperation to set the people against me knowing fully that they are not on the ground.”
“Having failed to buy the conscience of the Ekiti House of Assembly members, the APC people have become increasingly afraid of 2018 and the agencies of the Federal Government should know that no matter how hard they try, Ekiti electorate will not be deceived by their blackmail and media trial.”
“The EFCC should be told in clear terms that this is 2016 and not 2006 when impeachment notices against governors were signed on the table of the EFCC operatives. Those who are tele-guiding the EFCC now should also be reminded that they did more than what they are doing now in 2006, yet I was overwhelmingly voted for by the Ekiti people eight years after the orchestrated impeachment which the Supreme Court declared illegal.”
“Should Nigerians now conclude that the EFCC is an appendage of the APC? Is the EFCC for investigation of corrupt practices among all Nigerians or members of opposition parties alone?” Fayose queried.
The governor said as of today he had not been accused of stealing from Ekiti treasury.
“The EFCC has not also said that Ekiti money was stolen and that my election was funded with Ekiti State money,” he said.
Accusing the EFCC of carrying out the APC agenda to force him out of office as was done in 2006, the governor added:
“It is sad that some politicians from Ekiti State now resume and close in EFCC offices in Lagos and Abuja and we wonder whether those politicians have now taken over the job of the EFCC.”
Fayose maintained that he would continue to speak his mind on issues affecting Nigerians and could never be cowed.
“Nigerians are suffering. states can no longer pay workers’ salaries, a litre of kerosene is now N220, a bag of rice is now N20,000 and some people will sit in the Presidential Villa and expect that all of us should keep silent? That’s not possible.”!
“No amount of media trial by agents of the Buhari-led APC government will make me to stop baring my mind on the cluelessness of the Federal Government,” he said.