Ekiti
State governor, Ayodele Fayose has challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to
direct the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to charge the
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh
to court if the commission was sure of evidences of fraud against him, saying;
“the EFCC appears to be operating a system in which an accused person is first
arrested, detained endlessly while the anti-corruption agency goes about
looking for evidence.”
Governor
Fayose, who maintained his support for a genuine fight against corruption,
challenged the EFCC to also act on petitions submitted to it against All
Progressives Congress (APC) chieftains and President Buhari’s election
sponsors.
Speaking
through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere
Olayinka, Governor Fayose cautioned that nothing untoward must happen to Metuh,
adding that the APC’s desperation to decimate and silence the opposition has
dragged the Buhari-led government in the mud of lawlessness.
The
governor said; “In saner climes, you don’t arrest people for alleged fraud and
start to look for evidence to prosecute them. Rather, before you arrest anyone
for fraud, anti-corruption agencies must have established a prima facie case
and arresting the suspect will only be to facilitate his or her arraignment in
court.
“However,
what we are witnessing in Nigeria is a situation whereby the EFCC will arrest
PDP leaders, humiliate them by subjecting them to media trial, detain them for
weeks in the process of trying to force them to make statements during which
the commission will be looking for evidence.
“For
instance, in the case of Metuh, we are being told that the EFCC is insisting
that he must write statements and one begins to wonder if it has now become
mandatory for an accused to write statements in law enforcement agent’s
custody. Shouldn’t the EFCC have simply charged Metuh to court based on its own
evidence? Or is Metuh’s statement the evidence the EFCC requires to prosecute
him?
“The
international community, especially the United Nations (UN), African Union
(AU), European Union (EU) and others are put on notice on this condemnable act
of arresting and detaining opposition leaders by agents of the Buhari-led
government before fishing for evidence.”
Source:
The Sun
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