Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has received over 250 petitions against governorship and National Assembly candidates who emerged victorious from the just-concluded political parties’ primaries to contest the 2015 elections.
A top official of the commission, who confirmed receipt of the petitions to Nigerian Pilot, said they came mostly from the EFCC’s zonal offices. He hinted that some of the petitions bordered on tax matters instead of graft cases.
He said the petitions would be referred to the appropriate quarters while the agency would investigate those that have merits and fall under the EFCC’s jurisdiction.
According to him, “we will not go after any politician based on a petition that has not been thoroughly investigated even though a good number of them are with facts and figures.”
He confirmed that the petitions were mostly against candidates who were successful in their primaries, adding that, “we are looking at it from the angle that some of the petitioners are angry and as such are seeking for a way to revenge, but EFCC has concluded that it won’t be dragged into politics.”
The official explained that the commission had suffered several image problems and, “I must tell you a good number of those image problems are from politicians. They would complain against their fellow politicians, asking us to investigate them. The moment we begin that investigation, they would run to the rooftop to announce to the whole world that EFCC is truncating democracy.”
He told Nigerian Pilot that the commission had become more focused and mature, unlike during past elections when it was still in its “infancy and cutting its teeth. So, the politicians more or less misled us sometimes. But now, the story is different, they can’t use us again.”
It was learnt that 150 of the petitions were against governorship candidates of the major opposition party. For instance, 20 petitions were filed against candidates in two South-West states, with 10 petitions coming from each state. In the South-South zone, seven petitions were filed against governorship candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in two states. Three petitions came from one state and four from the other.
The commission however said that it would still investigate the petitions in due course, “but I would not tell you when, it is going to be at our pace. Right now, what we are doing is a background check on all those petitions and the petitioners, after that, anyone of them that merits investigation would be pursued with vigour.”
When contacted, EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, confirmed that the various offices of the commission had witnessed a swarm of petitions and petition writers since the trumpet for the 2015 elections was blown by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
He said: “I can tell you that we can no longer count the number of petitions. This is because, some of them would write the first one and take it to our zonal offices, when may be after a month they did not hear anything, they would write another one and head straight to Abuja headquarters of the commission.”
Lamorde confirmed that all the petitions would be attended to at the right time and at the agency’s pace.
Source: Nigerian Pilot
