Makarfi Photo By: Sun News Publishing

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Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance and former Kaduna State governor, Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi has declared that he is ready to respond to invitation from the Economic and Fianancial Crimes Commission (EFCC) anytime such is extended to him.

Makarfi also said that the nine oil producing states of the Niger Delta are expected to take home a huge N472 billion as derivation if the National Assembly retains the 53 dollars benchmark for oil proposed by the president.

A national daily had reported last week that Makarfi is among three former governors that will soon be prosecuted by the EFCC.
But speaking at a forum organised by the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Kaduna, Makarfi wondered how he can be prosecuted when he has not been invited by the anti graft body saying he will be ready to answer their invitation.

“I have not been questioned; I have not been invited regarding any matter. In the course of their investigation in any given matter, if they invite me, whether it is the EFCC, ICPC or Code of Conduct Bureau, I will make myself available. “Until I hear what they have to say before I know what to do about that. But it is normal to investigate and they are doing that all over Nigeria and I see nothing abnormal about that”, the former governor said.

Makarfi who said that he has visited former Delta State governor at the Kaduna prison where he is being detained on the orders of the Federal High Court in Kaduna said that as a person, he does not feel threatened by the spate of trial of former governors across the country.
He noted that what is important is the promotion of the rule of law which the present government tends to promote.

“What we should be promoting is rule of law and that anybody accused of any offence, the law and constitution says that person is innocent until proven guilty. What we find unjust is that at any moment, anybody on the street can go and make accusation against you.

“We have become a country of petition writers. At the end of the day, you will wake up and not find people of substance willing to go for public office because if you want to rubbish them, you can just write a petition against them. It is for the agencies to look into those petitions.

“Of course, on the surface value of some of them, they can throw them away or look deeper whether there are enough reasons to make a case against you. There is nothing bad in all of that. But we jumping the gun and calling somebody…, particularly because of our circumstances.

“In some other countries, you will not find the spate of petitions you find here. A lot of things are promoted because of political reasons. Again, if the agencies don’t look into them, they will be accused of being bought over.

“If they begin to look into them, the person will say he is guilty even without the case going to court. This is not good, this is not fair. If you know yourself, you have no reasons to fear even if you are accused. If you are given the opportunity to defend yourself, you defend yourself and you come out clean at the end of the day.”

On the Delta state former governor, he said “I have visited him. Whether a former colleague or not, once I know you, I will visit you and I have visited him like other people have done and I will continue to visit him.

“Now, what is important is respect for the rule of law because that is what the government has been preaching. You are not guilty until the court says you are guilty and you are not finally guilty until you have exhausted all the processes provided by law. It is not going to be fair either to the accused or the prosecutor or even the system to pass judgment on you because you are undergoing trial. “People should actually be campaigning for a transparent and speedy trial so that whoever is guilty is not guilty and whoever is not guilty is not guilty”.

Speaking on claims in certain quarters that the EFCC entered into agreement with some former governors to return the money they allegedly took from their state coffers, Makarfi said “You see, the law setting up the EFCC provides for settlement out of court. Now, it is left to the EFCC to decide on any case with anybody whether in the private sector or in government.
“They are also to decide whether a case is worthy of going to court or not.

They exercise that prerogative. So, if they have done that with anybody, whether a former colleague or any other Nigerian, it should have been done within the provisions of the law because the law provides for that.”
Speaking on the Niger Delta, Makarfi said that the constitution and laws of the country made specific provisions which are supposed to serve the interest of the Niger Delta people.
He said that the 1999 constitution and the NDDc Act has made specific provisions for the Niger Delta in addition to what they get from sectoral allocation accrueing to the ministries.

He noted that for the 2008 budget, if the National Assembly retains “the benchmark of $53 dollars, the nine oil producing states are going to get direct to them, N472 billion from derivation alone. The essence of derivation is to give them special funds to serve particular purpose.

“When you go to sectoral allocation, you see different provisions, either road, water, power etc which will also serve the Niger Delta. Then, you turn to the NDDC. In the NDDC law, the fund will get 15 percent of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) share of the states. “So, you look at what 15 percent share of what the Nine NDDC states get from FAAC and the federal government gives that to the NDDC. It is not something you can just decide anyhow. It is guided by a law and that is how you compute it and whatever figure that is, that is what you can legitimately give to NDDC.

“I think that the misunderstanding arose because the speech writers of Mr. President combined different sectors together. The said Security and Niger Delta and in my own opinion, they are not supposed to combine them because they are not related. “For the Niger Delta, they would just have said NDDC.

When you talk of Security, you are talking about the Police, Army, Airforce, Navy and all the agencies under them. So, this is where the misconception came about. I thin we should understand where the misconception came from and educate Nigerians about it rather than allow Nigerians wallow in darkness, not knowing what is going on.

“The National Assembly cannot increase the amount of money going to derivation because there is a law with regards to the maximum it can go. You can’t increase the amount going to NDDC because there is a law.

“In other areas, such as increasing the benchmark so that money is available and more money is allocated to sectors such as roads and water, the National Assembly will look at that and make other provision for the Niger Delta and other parts of Nigeria”.