The Media Office of the immediate past governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, has accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, of being desperate to execute a hatchet job for unknown interests.
The office also alleged that the anti-corruption agency was bent on tarnishing the image of the former governor for political reasons and other considerations best known to them.
The media office, in a statement on Wednesday night, signed by its Director, Ohiare Michael, said this had been made evident by the various operational and procedural blunders committed by the anti-corruption agency since the inception of its alleged money laundering case against him.
It described the statements released by the EFCC the same Wednesday, titled, “Yahaya Bello Must Have His Day in Court” as “a face-saving but badly scripted statement.”
The former governor’s team specifically noted that the EFCC had already shown to the world that there was more to its fixation on Kogi State and the ex-Governor Bello than its purported fight against corruption.
Ohiare referred to the events of last Wednesday when the former governor voluntarily submitted himself to the agency but was not interrogated or detained after four hours only for EFCC operatives to launch an attack on the Kogi Government Lodge at night.
He said, “If the EFCC was truly interested in prosecution and not a deal by some unknown persons to humiliate the former governor and probably harm him for political reasons, would the agency not have taken him in on that day with a view to arraigning him in court on the next adjourned date?
“Why turn a money laundering allegation into an embarrassment for the whole country ostensibly to massage the ego of some collaborators?
“We want Nigerians to help us ask: What exactly does the EFCC want from former Governor Yahaya Bello?”