In this interview with CAPITAL POST, an All Progressives Congress, APC chieftain, Ayuba Nana from Ankpa Local Government in Kogi East Senatorial District, highlighted about the dangerous turn the fight against corruption is turning to, especially as it has now been politicized.
He warned of the negative narratives the present trend in the method of selective prosecution would have on the EFCC which many say should at all times be left alone as a strong institutions fighting corruption in the country and many more.
Question: You are welcome to this special interview and I think we have not seen you for a long time?
Answer: I have been around trying to concentrate on survival. The economic situation in the country right now necessitated my absence from the public glare and as a politician that knows his onus, the elections are over and it is important to allow the authorities to concentrate on governance.
Question: The country indeed is going through a trying period and as a member of the governing party what is the way out?.
Answer: The times indeed calls for patriotism of the highest level from all citizens. No government no matter how vindictive wishes that the citizens are made to suffer. We must realize where we are coming from as a nation both economically and politically. The present realities in our country was not caused by the present administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, but it is the aggregative long term effect of our years in the wilderness when we have successive bad government implementing voodoo economic policies that brought our country to its present state.
The times indeed calls for patience and understanding with the present renewed hope administration and the harsh economic prescription which is well intentioned and involves some bitter pills we must swallow is our surest way in reviving our economy for the long term happiness of our people. We shall overcome because this present government led by President Tinubu is the beginning of the end for maladministration in Nigeria and he shall succeed.
Question: Let us now migrate to the politics of Kogi state and after eight solid years in the saddle as governor of Kogi state by Yahaya Adoza Bello, how would you rate his tenure?
Answer: I would to the best of my knowledge and as a citizen of Kogi state who is very proud about this state give you an impartial and candid opinion about the eight year tenure of Yahaya Bello as governor of the confluence state.
Firstly throughout history no nation or state have achieved any substantial leap without a leader who gives it his visionary, altruistic and actionable plans. Yahaya Adoza Bello is the father of the modern day leadership of this state. Prior to the administration of this young man, all the citizens of this state would agree totally with me that the state has been wandering in the wilderness and running in a circle because of the activities of our leaders who pays attention only to the whims and caprices of their godfather’s.
Today go to Kogi state and call the name of all our prior governors except the late Prince Abubakar Audu of blessed memory and even a small boy in the street would tell you the names of their godfathers. Yahaya Bello killed the notion called godfathers in the state because he has none. He brought a new direction to the state and you can see it with the plethora of development projects scattered throughout the state. To me he performed absolutely well.
Question: But today the EFCC had accused him of laundering the sum of 82 billion naira from the state allocations and he is evading arrest?
Answer: You all are men from the fourth estate of the realm because of your importance to the society and so educated and enlightened to know the difference between persecution, victimisation and actions made only to embarrass. Of late the methodology employed by the EFCC is anything but an aberration. The laws creating the EFCC did not in any way allow the Commission to be a tool in the hands of anyone to simply embarrass a political opponent.
The EFCC is not above the law and I want to correct the impression that Yahaya Adoza Bello is trying to evade arrest as in the face of a subsisting court order and pronouncements by a court of competent jurisdiction that stopped the commission from arresting or inviting him till the case before it that bothers on the fundamental human right of the former governor is finished. Ask yourself why the EFCC is in a hurry and why it is not obeying a court of law?. It is simply because it was compelled by somebody only known to them to embarrass the former governor. The EFCC is playing to the gallery and it must be told to stop because nobody is saying that Yahaya Adoza Bello is above the law and above been invited to answer any charges but the method employed to achieve this is laden with suspicion.
On the issue of laundering 82 billion naira, I will say that it is laughable for you to accuse a man of laundering such humongous amount of money by September 2015 when he assumed office by January 2016. Technically and legally, the case against Yahaya Adoza Bello is a charade from ab initio because in the face of the law it cannot fly.
Question: The case of Yahaya Bello seems to have been dramatized by the EFCC, but we are no longer hearing of some of the cases against some big shots who the same Commission accused of stealing humongous amount of money more than Yahaya Bello. Why is it so?
Answer: The answer is there blowing in the wilderness. Now I think you the press knows why we are crying wolf. The Yahaya Bello case is a dramatic case well-rehearsed in order to intimidate and bully him. Let’s call names because they say history is replete with examples, the case of Alhaji Bello Matawalle, the case of Gabriel Suswam, the case of Ayo Fayose ,the case of Obiano, the case of Atiku Bagudu and others where is it today. Dead on arrival and you are only following a man whom you accused wrongfully and you think there is no God?
