The Akwa Ibom state chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has challenged the governor Udom Emmanuel to stop blocking the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, from doing its job if he and his staff have nothing to hide.
The party in a statement signed by the spokesperson, APC Campaign Organisation, Hon Eseme Eyiboh, also on Thursday, said the government has “continued to live in denial of the serial malfeasance that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has been unraveling in the past three years of Udom Emmanuel administration.”
It noted that it was in the best interest of the state and “for the sake of accountability to allow the EFCC do its statutory duties of checkmating corruption.”
The APC’s statement was in response to an earlier statement by the Akwa Ibom state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Charles Udoh, describing the alleged indictment of Gov. Emmanuel as baseless.
Read below the full text of the APC’s statement:
The government of Akwa Ibom State, through the Hon. Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Charles Udoh, today Thursday, December 6, 2018, issued a press statement in which it accused a Federal agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of “perpetuating illegalities against the Government and the good people of Akwa Ibom.”
The release is one of those empty Statements on the current corruption charge against government officials and cronies, through which Akwa Ibom funds are corruptly taken away from the people.
The government has continued to live in denial of the serial malfeasance that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has been unraveling in the past three years of Udom Emmanuel administration. The cry of witch-hunt and such other familiar cover-up lamentations do not answer the fundamental question of why, for instance, Udom Emmanuel’s legal fees as a governorship candidate should be paid from public coffers. These pretentious victim cry do not tell Akwa Ibom people, why such huge sums are paid out to private lawyers when the state ministry of justice is populated by experienced, well trained, but poorly motivated staffers.
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It is in the best interest of the state and for the sake of accountability to allow the EFCC do its statutory duties of checkmating corruption. If the government of Deacon Udom Emmanuel is sure that the officials are not corrupt, why do they keep blocking the anti-graft agency? The truth is that Gov. Emmanuel runs the most diseased, inept and opaque government in modern Nigeria.
It is futile to keep running from pillar to post, from one court to another to hide from the corruption that has always been there in the full glare of the Akwa Ibom people. If you are not hiding anything, make your officials available for investigation.
We appeal to the EFCC not to be deterred by the resort to playing the victim’s card and baseless allegations of political motivation. Akwa Ibom State, whose social services, health and educational institutions have continued to decay as a result of poverty of the philosophy of statutory governance, often blamed on paucity of fund deserves the best. Any excuse to the contrary can only fly in the face of crippling corruption, such as the illegal withdrawal of billions paid into private coffers.
