A chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State, Mr. Lere Olayinka, has hailed the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II, for saying the truth about the prevailing corruption in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), saying the monarch spoke the mind of Nigerians.
Oba Ewuare II, it would be recalled, had accused the EFCC of taking instructions from the highest bidders while handling petitions from his palace, adding that; “No matter how you try to support EFCC from the palace, when it is time to assist them, they listen to other parties.”
In his reaction, Olayinka said in a statement on Thursday that EFCC must have to purge itself of corruption for the war against corruption to succeed in the country.
He said: “Truth is, the main corruption that is fighting back is in the EFCC itself and the chairman, Ola Olukoyede, said it all when he told Nigerians in January this year that operatives of the anti-graft agency were taking bribe.
“Interestingly, five months after he handed down that damning verdict of corruption on operatives of the EFCC that he leads, Olukoyede is yet to show just one scapegoat that he has caught. Rather, it appears that it is still business as usual.
“If it is not the business of corruption in the EFCC as usual, the chairman won’t say on television that he offered to give the former governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, a preferential treatment.
“Or didn’t Olukoyede himself say on television that he offered to give Yahaya Bello, a suspect in a corruption case EFCC is prosecuting, a preferential treatment? Did he not ask Yahaya Bello to come to the EFCC office like a VIP and enter through his (Olukoyede) private gate where no one will see him?
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“Isn’t that in itself corruption? Or is that how all EFCC suspects, including Yahoo Boys, are called on phone and offered a red carpet entrance to the anti-graft agency’s head office?
“Most importantly, what has happened to those the EFCC chairman boasted few months ago that their cases would be reviewed and won’t be swept under the carpet?
“For people like us who have been seen as being critical about the EFCC, it is not out of any personal hatred for the agency. Rather, it is out of concern and same concern was what Oba Ewuare II has expressed and I hope the monarch won’t be accused of working for Yahaya Bello or any of those being investigated by the agency.”