Governor Fayose Speaks On Olisa Metuh's Arrest
Ayodele Fayose, the governor of Ekiti state, has spoken on the recent arrest and detention of Olisa Metuh, the spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The governor described the EFCC as "a system in which an accused person is first arrested, detained endlessly while the anti-corruption agency goes about looking for evidence".
Premium Times reports that Fayose expressed his opinion in a statement made on Friday, January 8, through his special assistant on public communications and new media, Lere Olayinka.
The governor also challenged the EFCC to act on petitions submitted to it against chieftains of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Muhammadu Buhari’s election sponsors.
Speaking about the arrest of the PDP’s spokesman, Fayose claimed that the APC’s desperation to silence the opposition has dragged the Buhari-led government in the mud of lawlessness.
READ ALSO: Olisa Metuh Never Received N1.4 billion From ONSA – PDP
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“In saner climes, you don’t arrest people for alleged fraud and start to look for evidence to prosecute them.
“Rather, before you arrest anyone for fraud, anti-corruption agencies must have established a prima facie case and arresting the suspect will only be to enable for his or her arraignment in court.
“However, what we are witnessing in Nigeria today is a situation whereby the EFCC will arrest PDP leaders, humiliate them by subjecting them to media trial, detain them for weeks in the process of trying to force them to make statements during which the commission will be looking for evidence.
“For instance, in the case of Metuh, we are being told that the EFCC is insisting that he must write statements and one begins to wonder if it has now become mandatory for an accused to write statements in law enforcement agent’s custody. Shouldn’t the EFCC have simply charged Metuh to court based on its own evidence? Or is Metuh’s statement the evidence the EFCC requires to prosecute him?” the governor wondered.
Fayose stressed that the international community, especially the United Nations, African Union, European Union were put on notice on the “condemnable act of arresting and detaining opposition leaders by agents of the Buhari-led government before fishing for evidence.”
READ ALSO: Olisa Metuh Was Planning To Escape To Caribbean Island?
Further in his statement, the governor challenged the president to target his anti-corruption effort not only to members of the PDP but also to those who sponsored his election.
“If President Buhari did not wait for any petition to move against PDP chieftains, asking people to come forward with allegations of corruption against APC chieftains, especially those who sponsored President Buhari’s election is clearly hypocritical.
“Most importantly, that the EFCC acting chairman, Ibrahim Magu even said the commission do not have any petition against APC chieftains when indeed there are loads of petitions against ministers serving in Buhari’s government and other notable APC chieftains goes to show the hypocrisy of the fight against corruption.
“It is even more hypocritical and anti-democratic for the President to have turned himself to the accuser, prosecutor and judge, carrying on as if those he accused of corruption have already been convicted," he said.
Meanwhile, the Metuh family has noted that the PDP spokesman has been detained for over 48 hours and the charges against him have not been made known to them or the general public.
The family expressed concern over the health and safety of their son, "who even before his arrest has alerted the nation about various threats to his life".
Source: Legit.ng
