Leave politics for politicians, CSOs urge EFCC

Civil Society Organisations, on Sunday, cautioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission against politically motivated prosecution.

The CSOs also advised the EFCC against acting as “political tools” in the hands of disgruntled politicians.

The CSOs under the aegis of Committee for the Defence of Democracy and Rule of Law particularly decried what they described as the seeming fixation of the anti-graft agency on “particular targets, fierce media trial and the network of opposition figures publicly displaying their affinity with the commission on particular matters easily reflected political hatchet jobs that must be discouraged.”

The Co-convener of the group, Kayode Mogbojuri, who spoke on behalf of the CSOs at a press conference in Abuja on Sunday, advised the EFCC chairman, Ola Olukoyede, to shut out real enemies of the commission.

He said, “For instance, the way it is handling the current corruption allegations against the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, is becoming a case of clear political witch-hunt by his political opponents for whom the EFCC seems to be a ready tool to be manipulated into fighting their proxy war.

“In every country that the fight against corruption has been politicised, corruption has not only thrived but also imploded.

“Politics and law enforcement should be water and oil that cannot mix.”

The activists said that the fact that the amended charge read that the former governor committed the said offence sometime in September 2015, when he had not become governor, also showed that it was a hurried attempt to nail him without due diligence, adding that saying it was an error would only compound the embarrassment this had earned for the nation’s anti-corruption struggle.

The CSOs also made particular reference to the EFCC’s statement that the former governor was at large, stating that it was the greatest evidence of political persecution, because there had been no prior publication that he had been invited.

“We advise the commission to leave politicking to politicians and concentrate on professionalism and delivery of its constitutional anti-corruption mandate without political pollution which has the potential to make it lose local and international support,” the activists concluded.