There was disquiet within the government circle on Thursday as Ekiti State Commissioner for Finance, Toyin Ojo and the State Accountant General, Yemisi Owolabi, were arrested by the operatives of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Although, details and reasons for their arrests were still sketchy as of the time of filing this report, an impeccable source with EFCC Headquarters in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory confirmed the arrests of the two Ekiti state government functionaries who were in Abuja for the monthly Joint Accounts Allocation Committee (JAAC) Meeting before the arrests.
But in a swift reaction to the development, Ekiti state government said that arrests of the two government officials is a further demonstration of the EFCC’s irresponsibility and a dog in the hands of government at the federal level to attack and intimidate perceived opposition.
In a statement, made available to journalists in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti state capital, Lere Olayinka, the Special Assistant to Governor Ayodele Fayose on Public Communications and New Media said:,”The EFCC is obviously living to its status as the attack-dog of the All Progressive Congress, (APC) government, but Ekiti State government under Governor Ayodele Fayose cannot be intimidated.”
The governor’s spokesman stated, “it is obvious that the hawks around President Muhammadu Buhari are afraid of Governor Ayodele Fayose’s declaration to contest the presidential election in 2019, hence the usual panicky measure of arresting government officials in Ekiti on the day of his declaration, with the view to embark on another round of media trial against the governor and his government.”
Olayinka added, “it is funny that the EFCC, in the bid to carry out its usual hatchet job against Governor Fayose, failed to take into cognizance the subsisting court order, which forbids any official of the Ekiti state government from being arrested by the EFCC. Up till today, (Thursday), the court order has not been appealed and it subsists.
The State government challenged the EFCC to tell Nigerians what has been done to the loads of petitions written against the immediate past APC government of Kayode Fayemi in Ekiti State, just as he asked: “What has the EFCC done to those involved in the grass-cutting scam and the $43 million Ikoyi scam?”
“It is so funny and laughable that these characters in the APC government can’t even disappoint for once by being unpredictable.
“Like we have said before, the game plan of those who want power in Ekiti State by force as well as those who do not want anyone to speak against President Buhari, that they see as a god, is to stifle Ekiti State government and make it impossible for the government to carry out its responsibilities.
“However, the EFCC and its collaborators should know that we have threaded this path before and we, in the government of Ekiti State won’t be intimidated by the irresponsibility of a federal government anti-corruption agency that has come to see itself as instrument of harassing, oppressing, intimidating and coercing perceived opposition
figures.
“On this one, let us tell these agents of the devil in the EFCC and those they are working for that as usual, they have taken on a wrong customer. This is because the more they run after Governor Fayose, the more they hit their heads on the Rock of Ages and get themselves fatally injured”, the spokesperson concluded.
RAPHAEL ADEYANJU, Ado Ekiti
