“Resign earlier than you wreck EFCC” – Ex-APC spokesman tells Olukoyede
A former Deputy Nationwide Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timi Frank has referred to as on Ola Olukoyede to resign his place because the chairman of the {Economic} and {Financial} Crimes Fee (EFCC).
Frank in a press release issued on Tuesday accused the anti-graft company of abandoning its constitutional mandate and working as a political instrument of the ruling celebration.
He additionally urged Olukoyede to resign as a way to save the company which he mentioned now conducts itself in a way inconsistent with the legal guidelines of the land.
In line with Frank, the Fee had introduced “disgrace and disrepute” upon itself via what he described as selective prosecution and political bargaining.
“We now have sadly reached some extent in our nation the place it has turn out to be tough to tell apart between a Fee statutorily saddled with the accountability of preventing {economic} and {financial} crimes and one which seems to function as an arm of the ruling celebration,” Frank mentioned.
The previous APC scribe mentioned the EFCC has “recklessly deserted its core mandate of combating corruption” and as a substitute assumed “the function of negotiating the calculated motion of political actors from opposition events to the ruling celebration.”
He additionally cited a number of high-profile instances to help his claims, starting with former Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa.
“The EFCC Chairman as soon as publicly threatened to resign if he was not given a free hand to prosecute Yahaya Bello,” he recalled. “But, after a go to to the Fee and one other spherical of ‘discussions,’ the case not enjoys the identical urgency or prosecution vigour.
“One should ask: was the Chairman of the EFCC unaware of this constitutional precept on the time he was publicly singing and dancing over the alleged crimes attributed to the identical particular person?” Frank queried.
He additional challenged the Fee to increase the identical public defence to different suspects.
“The Fee also needs to do nicely to behave because the spokesperson for different suspects, akin to former Lawyer-Basic of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, former CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, the Commissioner of Finance, Bauchi State, Yakubu Adamu, and a number of others,” he mentioned.
Frank raised what he referred to as “basic questions” concerning the EFCC’s operations.
“Why have been Godwin Emefiele and Abubakar Malami not accorded the identical remedy? Is it as a result of they’re but to decamp to the ruling celebration? Why has the EFCC embraced selective prosecution?” he queried.
The article was initially revealed on Politics Nigeria.