Posted by From Alfa Daniel, (Abuja), Njadvara Musa (Maiduguri) and Alex Olise (Lagos) on
THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has raised alarm that some politicians are now publicly circulating fake "EFCC indictment lists".
EFCC raises alarm on fake lists of indicted politicians
From Alfa Daniel, (Abuja), Njadvara Musa (Maiduguri) and Alex Olise (Lagos)
THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has raised alarm that some politicians are now publicly circulating fake "EFCC indictment lists".
In a statement, Head, Media and Publicity of the commission, Mr. Osita Nwajah, stated yesterday: "The brazen peddling of this obvious falsehood by certain media houses (not The Guardian) and its blind propagation by otherwise respected Nigerians is regrettable."
He said that the commission only wrote the affected parties, not individual candidates and the Presidency had no input whatsoever into the advice that went out to the parties.
The statement added: "That it is pertinent to draw the attention of Nigerians to the fact that whereas the only communication that went out from the commission regarding the advisory to the respective parties detailed only candidates affected on each party's platform, circulating in media houses today, are some fake lists of allegedly indicted politicians.
"It has been revealed that these fake EFCC indictment lists are being spawned and circulated by disgruntled politicians in last ditch attempts to taint the efforts of the commission to break the cycle of rape of the Nigerian nation by known crooks.
"However, EFCC it must be recalled, had warned Nigerians in the past to be vigilant to the co-ordinated attempts of organised bands of crooked politicians and other fraudsters to try to derail the commission from seeing through the onerous task of cleaning up the Nigerian public service space."
Besides, chairmen of two Senate Committees, Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN) and Ike Ekweremadu, have denied that they were among those indicted in an (EFCC) report but had their names removed from the list at the last minute before it was published in the media last week.
Both lawyers have threatened to go to court to clear their names.
Senator Ndoma-Egba linked the mention of his name to his assignment as the Chairman of the Adhoc Committee investigating activities of the Petroleum Technology Trust Fund (PTDF) but declared the "blackmail" would not stop him from concluding his job.
Said Ndoma-Egba, who is also the Senate spokesman: "I know that it is all blackmail given this my recent assignment and I am just hoping to submit my report and get on with life. It is part of the blackmail, it is the PTDF report, long and short and I know where they are coming from, but they are mistaken.''
Ekweremadu, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Governmental Affairs, said he would fight the blackmail through the court as he challenged the publications to show evidence of his corruption.
Also, Borno State Governor, Ali Modu Sheriff, has said: "No individual or groups of people including an institution can stop a governorship candidate from contesting elections except the political party that fielded the candidate and court of law."
Sheriff made the declarations yesterday in Maidugri while addressing people at the Polo Ground on his clearance and acceptance by the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in Abuja to contest the governorship election in Borno State.
He said that his inclusion among the 135 candidates indicted by the EFCC was the handiwork of the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Borno.
He lamented that the PDP wanted to clinch power from the people at all cost without programmes that could improve their quality of lives in a democratically elected government.
Sheriff noted that despite the attempts made by the PDP to stop him from contesting the elections, the ANPP had cleared him of any wrong doing.