EFCC’s Handling Of Yahaya Bello’s Case Condemnable – CD

By Ayodele Oni

The Campaign for Democracy, (CD) has flayed the anti graft czar for refusal to arrest, and detain former Kogi state governor, Yahaya Bello, when he visited the office on Wednesday.

The CD pointed out that the failure demonstrates inability of Ola Olukoyede to hold the office as the chairman of the  Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) and called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately relieve him of the job.

CD, a frontline Civil Society Organization, (CSO) in Nigeria, said it was unimaginable that the former governor, who the same EFCC had placed on watchlist, who the Commission enlisted security agencies in Nigeria and Interpol to help fish out, walked into the EFCC premises, waited for about three hours and no arrest or interrogation took place.

“Instead, they told him to go, that they would get back to him only to issue a laughable statement that he was still a wanted man,” the President, Campaign for Democracy, Comrade Ifeanyi Odili, said in a statement on Thursday.

According to him, EFCC’s excuse that they couldn’t arrest him because a sitting governor accompanied him to their office is the main reason Olukoyede should be asked to go.

“Many people had castigated this man for long even though many others believed the case was mainly that of persecution. In all of this, CD did not dabble into the matter.

“Now that the matter has taken a dramatic turn, one that touches on democratic principles and affects the country’s image, it is pertinent for well meaning Nigerians to lend their voice.

“Associates of the former governor had been raising the alarm that his life is at risk. With the events of yesterday (Wednesday 18th September, 2024), any right thinking person would conclude that his life must be truly at risk.

“You said you couldn’t arrest him or interrogate him in your office because his governor was there, yet you went, at night, to the official residence of the same governor in Abuja to start firing gunshots as if Nigeria is a lawless society. This is unacceptable.”

The Campaign for Democracy maintained that in saner climes, the EFCC boss would have been fired the next morning.

“The man, Yahaya Bello, has fulfilled all righteousness. With the turn of events that culminated in a show of shame last night, it appears the EFCC has an ulterior motive definitely different from the fight against corruption.”