The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has insisted that the anti-graft agency will investigate and prosecute the Delta State former governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, former minister, Betta Edu, Minister of Defense, Bello Metawalle, and all financial crimes offenders despite their political parties.
Olukoyede added that the agency under his watch would not derail from the guiding principles from which EFCC was established, saying we will continue to work in line with the agency’s mandate.
The EFCC boss, who said this in an interview with a national television on Wednesday, explained that the commission had never been selective in its investigation and prosecution process.
Asked if the commission will still go ahead with the investigation and prosecution of the immediate past governor of Delta State, Okowa, after he defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), Olukoyede stressed that the EFCC was not setup to be an arm of any political party.
“I do not belong to any political party and I have not been appointed as the secretary or the chairman of any political party.
“If Nigerians would also be fair to us, if you take the statistics of our work, in regards to the area of investigation, prosecution, particularly high-profile cases, you can perhaps find more of the members of the ruling party that the EFCC has prosecuted. So we must also be judged fairly.”
“It will be unfair to us if people think that we are only investigating people that are in the opposition parties or that we close our eyes to other members who perhaps are not members of the ruling political party.”
Olukoyede said the EFCC would never be influenced by political statements, stressing that the commission is strictly guided by the provisions of the law.
“For the particular case (Ifeayin Okowa) you mentioned, you will agree with me that we started that investigation way back. So for somebody to have now introduced politics into it, such a person is not fair to EFCC,” he added.
He explained that Okowa was not the only former governor of a state that the EFCC has invited, insisting that any former governor who was involved in financial crimes while in office, will be investigated and prosecuted by the EFCC.
When asked about the status of the case of the former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, sacked last year over alleged fraud and corruption, Olukoyede noted that investigations had yet to be completed.
She was initially suspended in January before her sack in April last year for allegedly diverting the sum of $640,000 of public money into a personal bank account.
The commission had in its preliminary investigation uncovered over 50 bank accounts linked to the funds and promised to get to the root of the matter, adding that anyone culpable would not be spared.
“There are cases we concluded within three months, some six months”, he said, adding that the commission just filed a charge against a person whose investigation started since 2007.
“We want to be more diligent to have a water-tight case”, he said, “this case involved about 27 other suspects and 174 bank accounts. “Do you know what it takes to investigate 174 bank accounts?” he queried.
While disclosing that the commission has to write to the banks involved, do analysis relating to transactions involving the said accounts, the EFCC chairman stated that until he has a water-tight case he “will not be stampeded to court”.
He however, assured that all those found culpable at the end of investigation would be definitely prosecuted, adding that Nigeria should give the anti-graft agency, “time to build our case.”
When asked about the position of another former Humanitarian Affairs minister, Sadiya Umar Farooq, who served under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari as well as former Zamfara governor and current Minister of Defence, Mr Bello Matawalle, the EFCC boss responded that, “it is the same thing with all the cases we have not concluded”.
Meanwhile, Olukoyede denied allegations that the commission disregarded the rule of law in the arrest of Aisha Achimugu on Tuesday, after her lawyers had hinted that she would be surrendering to the commission for investigation.
He explained that Achimugu had jumped earlier bail granted her by the EFCC, hence her arrest in Abuja.
Besides, he pointed out that the Commission had declared Achimugu a wanted person after she ignored EFCC’s invitation of March 5 and traveled out of the country on March 7.
