Posted by By MODESTUS CHUKWULAKA, Abuja on
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has come under attack for its failure to bring Senator Iyabo Obasanjo to court, several weeks after it had arrested her co-accused in the N300 million health budget scam.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has come under attack for its failure to bring Senator Iyabo Obasanjo to court, several weeks after it had arrested her co-accused in the N300 million health budget scam.
The Coalition of Nigerian Youth Leaders and Democratic Watch said the commission had the capacity to bring the senator to the law if it wanted to.
In a communique issued at the end of a two-day stakeholders meeting in Abuja, the group expressed surprise that an EFCC which laid a siege to the Lagos residence of Dr. Mike Adenuga and pushed down his fence in a bid to bring him to book is now finding it difficult to arrest a woman who has not escaped from Abuja.
Accusing the commission of trivializing the weighty issue involved, the coalition said it could not fathom why Senator Obasanjo had refused to present herself before the law when former governors and ministers have been taken to court by the EFCC, the group said
Speaking to journalists, 'Iyabo is playing hide and seek, she is trying to tarnish the image of the youths of this country," the group in the communique read by its secretary, Otene Joshua, said. It noted that the senator is presumed innocent until proven otherwise and as such she should not be afraid of anything if she has nothing to hide.
The group commended the EFCC for taking action against the former Health minister, Prof. Adenike Grange and the minister of state, Arch. Gabriel Aduku, for their role in the Health ministry scandal.
Noting that Aduku had betrayed the confidence of the entire Kogi people by his action, the coalition implored President Umaru Musa Yar,Adua to appoint another Kogi man, preferably Dr. Fred Haruna Achem to replace the disgraced Aduku.
It said the looting of N300 million unspent health budget was immoral when several rural communities had no access to public health infrastructures, and called for an extensive investigation into the matter while those found culpable should face the full weight of the law.
It also commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the smooth way it handled the gubernatorial bye-elections in Kogi and Adamawa states, saying that the outcome of the two elections had proved that INEC has all it takes to conduct free and fair elections for the country