Kogi State Commissioner for Information, Kingsley Fanwo, has stated that some governors eyeing the 2023 presidency hired the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to discredit Yahaya Bello.
The EFCC and the Kogi State government in recent months been contending over allegations that the state operates a bank account in Sterling Bank holding N20 billion bailout loan.
The antigraft agency had stated that there were suspicious fraudulent activities linked to the account.
A federal high court sitting in Lagos had in August, froze a Kogi state salary bailout account domiciled in Sterling Bank Plc after an ex-parte application brought by the EFCC.
The EFCC on Friday, the EFCC announced that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has taken receipt of N19.3 billion recovered from the state account domiciled in the bank.
According to Fanwo who spoke with journalists in Lagos, on Sunday, he stated that the EFCC is only chasing shadows, while it described the incident as a hatchet job conceived by politicians and executed by the anti-graft agency.
“This is the height of irresponsibility by an agency charged with the responsibility of fighting corruption in our country,” Fanwo said.
“Certain individuals, especially governors with interest in 2023, have hired some agencies to discredit our governor before 2023. They attempted to use the NFIU, ICPC, Code of Conduct. They have finally settled for EFCC, which has all along acted as hired guns for these individuals to discredit and vilify Bello.
“We’ll not stop fighting until the EFCC apologise to Kogi and stop being used for political reasons. EFCC cannot be trusted with the responsibility of fighting corruption.
“The Kogi state government states categorically that it knows nothing about the money returned to CBN. The Kogi state government denies the account where the alleged fund was warehoused.
“This is a hatched job conceived by politicians and executed by the EFCC. The EFCC is chasing shadows and wants to tarnish the governor’s political image by portraying him as a corrupt governor.”
Fanwo demanded that the EFCC apologise to the Kogi State governor within 48 hours or face legal actions.
