Posted by From JOE EFFIONG, Uyo on
Akwa Ibom State governor, Obong Victor Attah, has hit back at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), describing it as a moving fowl without a head.
Akwa Ibom State governor, Obong Victor Attah, has hit back at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), describing it as a moving fowl without a head.
Addressing journalists at Government House, Uyo on Tuesday, Attah, who described his inclusion in the "corrupt governors club" as baseless, said even before the commission came up with the list, he and another governor had complained to President Olusegun Obasanjo about the faulty nature of the law setting up EFCC.
"I and one of my colleagues had approached the president to complain that the law setting up the ICPC was better than that of the EFCC because that of the former makes it mandatory for the petitioner to be properly identified before action could be taken.
"But that of the EFCC is not so because there is no provision for the identification of the petition writer, but the body will just act on spurious petitions coming from fictitious sources. It makes it look like a hen running without a head. Yes, that is what it is.
"We had told the president that, but it has become fashionable for the EFCC to make the governors and other highly placed persons the whipping boys of the corruption campaign.
"Every governor supports the president's anti-corruption campaign, but it must be run with decorum not with the present rascality. In Nigeria, setting up a committee of enquiry about somebody is usually regarded as saying ‘go and hang that person, whether he is guilty or not.' It is sad; we have to change that," Attah said.
The visibly angry Attah reasoned that if EFCC had anything against any of the governors, especially those who had left government more than three years ago, it would have since prosecuted them as they were no more covered by immunity.
"It is just an attempt to give a dog a bad name to hang it. If EFCC has anything against anybody, all this sensationalism will stop," the governor said.
Attah, who said his removal as the chairman of the governors' forum had nothing to do with the EFCC saga, explained that he should have since been changed, since the position is rotatory, especially since he declared his intention to contest the presidency, adding, "leaving the forum as chairman is fine by me; the thing is supposed to rotate, so it is not surprising."
Though he admitted that he had been frustrated by some of the indigenous contractors who deliver poor quality job, forcing his administration to re-award some of them, the governor maintained that the independent power plant (IPP), the Ibom International Airport and the international hotel would be inaugurated before the end of his tenure.