Wole Balogun, Ado Ekiti
Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose has, again, written to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), insisting that he would make himself available to the anti-graft commission on October 16, 2018 at 1: 00pm.
But, if the EFCC is not satisfied, the commission is welcome to his office, tomorrow.
Fayose said it would amount to a breach of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, if he appeared before the EFCC before the expiration of his tenure “because of the immunity I enjoy under Section 308 of the Constitution.” and condemned the EFCC for what he described as “hate prejudice, persecution and partiality already demonstrated by the commission.”
Fayose also said the EFCC should not be in such a hurry that its investigation cannot await October 16; a day after the expiration of his tenure.
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“Without prejudice to section 308 of the Constitution, I will be willing to answer questions from your team of investigators should they be willing to meet me in my office, in Ado Ekiti, on September 20; as indicated in the EFCC’s September 13 letter,” the governor said.
In a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, yesterday, Fayose said the EFCC’s letter to the Nigeria Customs Service, directing them to place him on a watch list as well as arrest him if he attempted to leave Nigeria, before the expiration of his tenure, raised serious questions about the Commission’s impartiality, independence or neutrality.
“In 2007, precisely on the December 19, I willingly presented myself for EFCC investigation at your Lagos office.
“There is, therefore, nothing new or strange in my letter of September 10, 2018, which has been received and treated in bad faith and taste.
“I thought I was assisting due and fair process of the law,” Fayose said in the letter.