Nigerian governors have concluded plans
to report the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
Mr. Ibrahim Magu, to the Federal Government.
The governors also said they would
embark on what they described as “a showdown” with Magu over the
anti-graft agency’s probe into the recently-released Paris Club loan
refunds to the states.
The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’
Forum, who is also the Governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari,
stated this while speaking with some journalists in Abuja on Thursday.
He said the leadership of the EFCC was
not planning to win the numerous corruption cases in courts, but would
prefer to engage in media trials.
Yari, who has been accused by the EFCC
of diverting part of the refund, stated that the governors were tired of
being intimidated and harassed by the anti-graft agency on how they
spent the money.
The governor specifically responded to
an order by a Federal High Court that the sums of N500m and $500,000,
said to have been diverted from the Paris Club refund in favour of the
36 states of the federation, be temporarily forfeited to the Federal
Government.
The sums of money were said to have been recovered from two companies which were allegedly linked to Yari.
The companies are First Generation
Mortgage Bank Limited and Gosh Projects Limited, said to be using the
money for a 100-room hotel project in Lagos.
The EFCC alleged that the sums of money were fraudulently diverted from the NGF’s bank account on the instructions of Yari.
The anti-graft agency also alleged in an
affidavit, filed in support of its ex parte application before the
court, that the N500m was diverted to offset Yari’s personal loan
obtained from the First Generation Mortgage Bank Limited.
The governor, who denied the
allegations, said neither him nor any of the other governors became
governors only to be harassed by the EFCC.
He noted that the problem with the EFCC
was because it chose to act on any petition sent to it without
conducting its own investigation.
The chairman of the NGF stated, “I
believe the EFCC does not have its own engineers to quantify, to know
what is exactly on the ground. And a project that is done in Rivers
State for N2m, in Zamfara it will be about N150,000.
“You cannot say the price of things in
Rivers should be the same in Zamfara or somewhere else. The terrain is
entirely different and the cost is different, so the risk as well is
entirely different. So, all these are taken into consideration.
”If there is a project, which is
suspected to be inflated, there are quantity surveyors. You can’t just,
because somebody wrote a petition, then, you say you are working on it
without doing your own due diligence.
“Then, why is the EFCC pursuing the
governors? Get these people if you are really going to fight it. If you
are ready for it, get anybody who did the wrong thing.’’
He alleged that governors were being frustrated by the anti-corruption agency.
Yari added, “To me, I am going to write
to the Federal Government that enough is enough; that either the EFCC
should do its work or we should ‘do showdown’ with them (EFCC) because
nobody became governor to be intimidated, to be harassed, to be abused
by a DCP (Deputy Commissioner of Police, Magu).
“The problem with the EFCC is that it
only wants Nigerians to know it has invited a governor or that one
former governor is arrested.
“The commission will not tidy its work
before going to court. It goes to court and lose all the cases because
of the way it initiates the case; but never do so to achieve success.
“You can’t fight corruption that way and forever, they (EFCC) will not achieve anything.”
According to the Zamfara State governor, he does not know why the commission is after him.
Yari stated, “In the case of my humble
self, I have no idea why the EFCC is actually interested in the issue of
the London Paris Club refund.
“It has been on this since inception up
till now. It has been repeating, contradicting so many things especially
about personalities.
“So, if there is anything wrong there,
it should approach the person whom it suspects did something wrong, and
not to be making noise about it.
“I challenge the chairman of EFCC to open up and say if he has ever come to me and interviewed me about what happened.
“We didn’t commit any fraud. I am not a
signatory to that account but I am the head. We have director-general,
we have head of finance, we have other officers of finance.’’
Yari added, “So, it is what governors
agree that I, as chairman, append my signature on. So now, they are
saying $86m fraud, N19bn fraud, $3m hotel; which one do we believe?
“When it came to the issue of hotel, I
challenge them that wherever they sighted a hotel in Lekki or anywhere,
let them present it to the public and how did $2m get in there, through
who, through which account? Who made the payment? Who is the owner of
the property initially that took the money.
“Is the EFCC saying that before I became
a governor, I didn’t have N150m? In my Code of Conduct papers, I have
property and money worth billions.’’
Yari said the anti-graft agency was pursuing the mandate given to it in a wrong way by allegedly going after political enemies.
“Because, to the best of my knowledge, the EFCC was set up for the nation not for the governors.
“But since the establishment of the EFCC in 2004, if I am not mistaken, the EFCC has been pursuing governors,” he said.”
apai (Niger State) –
Prof. Muhammad Maiturare, Vice Chancellor, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida
University (IBBU) Lapai in Niger, has said that attaining the UN 2030
Sustainable Development Agenda would be a “tough task” for Nigeria.
“Unless drastic actions are taken, the dream of attaining that agenda
will remain a mirage,” Maiturare said in Lapai on Friday
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/07/nation-depends-nations-food-dead-nation/
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/07/nation-depends-nations-food-dead-nation/
Lapai (Niger State) –
Prof. Muhammad Maiturare, Vice Chancellor, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida
University (IBBU) Lapai in Niger, has said that attaining the UN 2030
Sustainable Development Agenda would be a “tough task” for Nigeria.
“Unless drastic actions are taken, the dream of attaining that agenda
will remain a mirage,” Maiturare said in Lapai on Friday.
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/07/nation-depends-nations-food-dead-nation/
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/07/nation-depends-nations-food-dead-nation/
Lapai (Niger State) –
Prof. Muhammad Maiturare, Vice Chancellor, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida
University (IBBU) Lapai in Niger, has said that attaining the UN 2030
Sustainable Development Agenda would be a “tough task” for Nigeria.
“Unless drastic actions are taken, the dream of attaining that agenda
will remain a mirage,” Maiturare said in Lapai on Friday.
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/07/nation-depends-nations-food-dead-nation/
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/07/nation-depends-nations-food-dead-nation/
There was chaos at the
Ikorodu axis of Lagos state, when a commercial vehicle was
double-crossed by some unknown gunmen in a Camry car, killing one
Olusola Bamidele, on board the bus.
It was gathered that the four men, wielding guns, cutlasses and daggers
quickly made their way into bus immediately they waylaid it, dragging
the victim down from the vehicle and murdering him with a machete.
The 40-year-old victim is said to have bled to death, even as the gunmen
drove off in their car.
Sources report that other passengers took to their heels, while the
driver and the conductor took the victim to the Ikorodu General Hospital
where he was confirmed dead on arrival. Read more: https://www.naij.com/804041-chaos-lagos-gunmen-attack-commercial-bus-one-passenger-killed-photo.html
Gunmen suspected to be
kidnappers attack a bus of a popular transport companies, abducting all
passengers on board
- The kidnappers have contacted family of the victims, demanding one
million naira on each passengers before they are released
- Security sources at the transport company say the gunmen later reduced
the ransom to N100, 000 each for the passengers
Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers have waylaid a commercial bus
travelling from Warri in Delta state to Port-Harcourt, Rivers state and
abducted 14 passengers on board at Rumoji near Port-Harcourt in Rivers
state. Read more: https://www.naij.com/1113853-gunmen-attack-commercial-bus-abduct-14-passengers.html
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