An apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide has revealed that its suspicion of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) complicity in the ongoing trial of former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu is now confirmed.
The group stated this on Sunday while reacting to an alleged letter sent by the anti-graft agency to the United Kingdom court where the lawmaker is standing trial.
In a statement signed by its National President, Mazi Okwu Nnabuike, Ohanaeze insisted that its suspicion that Ekweremadu’s arrest was fishy has now being confirmed by the revelation in court on Thursday by the lawmaker’s lawyer Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN)
The Ohanaeze youths said that the EFCC authored a letter with which the London Metropolitan Police scuttled the Senator’s bail in the ongoing trial.
Ohanaeze also lamented that the EFCC had decided to ignore other former executive office holders with well known corruption allegations to hunt after Ekweremadu.
The statement reads, “The revelation in court that the EFCC indeed armed the London Metropolitan Police with the letter with which it scuttled Chief Ike Ekweremadu’s bail has justified our November 2022 statement that the anti-graft agency was working hand in glove with foreign and local interests to detain and nail the lawmaker at all cost.
“We disagree with the EFCC that the said letter was a mere routine to a counterpart government agency and that the asset forfeiture proceedings instituted against Ekweremadu only after exchanges of communication with the London Police and while in detention was a mere coincidence.
“Even if no legally stipulated timeframe for the EFCC to initiate forfeiture proceedings or criminal charges against a suspect as claimed by the agency, is it patriotic, professional, ethical, and auspicious for the anti-graft agency to go after a man they claim to have been investigating since 2008 only when he was detained in London?
“Would the London Metropolitan Police arm the EFCC with a letter to sabotage the bail application of a British citizen, let alone Member of Parliament, in a Nigerian court, pledge its readiness to go to court against that citizen in London while in Nigerian detention, and go ahead to do exactly that?”
The group wondered if it was honorable for the EFCC to refuse to inform the Federal High Court that they had investigated the former lawmaker for over a decade and he was currently unavailable because he was in detention in a foreign land considering that such information would play a vital role in deciding to grant the interim assets forfeiture
Ohanazeze stated that it was shameful that other countries like the UK and USA would consciously embark on a mission to secure the freedom of its citizens if they were involved in a heinous crime in a foreign land but Nigeria would never do the same.
“Besides, it is most unfortunate that the EFCC has overlooked its Augean stable most recently relating to the humongous allegations of corruption against its last Chairman as well as other issues of alleged mismanagement of recovered or seized assets but only to hunt after a distinguished Nigerian lawmaker in detention and facing trial in a foreign land,” it concluded.
Related story:
EFCC Releases Photos of Ekweremadu’s Properties Recently Seized
Ekweremadu Trial: ‘Our Suspicion Now Confirmed’ – Group Announces