Sokoto government officials have
accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of attempting to
malign the integrity of Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.
The anti-graft body last week
announced that it had challenged the power of Tambuwal to ‘pardon’ five persons
standing trial for corrupt practices in offences allegedly committed during the
regime of former Governor, Attahiru Bafarawa who ruled between 1999 and 2007.
The defendants include two
serving commissioners, Tukur Alkali and Isa Achida. Others are Chairman,
Governing Board of the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE),
Alhaji Maigari Dingyadi; member representing Isa constituency at the House of
Assembly, Alhaji Habibu Modachi; and a Permanent Secretary, Isah Bello.
They were all arraigned in 2009,
two years after the end of Bafarawa’s tenure, over an alleged N15bn fraud.
The former Governor is also a
defendant in the case.
Reacting to the development, a
top official in the state ministry of justice said that EFCC was ‘economical
with the truth’ on the issue.
“The EFCC will do itself a lot of
good if it weans itself of politically-motivated cases in order to boost its
reputation and enhance the credibility of the fight against corruption in the
country”.
“This case was filed in the first
instance because Wamakko fought tooth and nail to ensure that leading lights of
the Bafarawa regime were prosecuted at all cost”, New Telegraph quoted the
official as saying.
“A commission of enquiry, under
the leadership of Aminu Ahmad was set up which indicted the said persons. Many
issues were raised about the procedure adopted by the commission. Upon their
indictment, the EFCC filed charges in court against the persons based on the
commission’s report and the white paper issued by the government.
“But two years ago, after waiting
for eight years to quash the adoption of the commission’s report through legal
means failed due to delays in court, the persons wrote to the new
administration calling for a review of their indictment.
“The state government, based on
the strong case they had, reviewed the work of the commission of inquiry and
discovered some errors in arriving at its final decision.
“The government then reached a
conclusion that the report was not fair to some of the persons and eventually
quashed the indictment in the spirit of justice and fairness.
“Quashing of the indictment has
nothing to do with the EFCC’s case in court. It was the natural thing to do
since those indicting have a strong case of not given a fair hearing in the
first instance.
“Seeing that the foundation upon
which the EFCC based its case against them was faulty and was eventually
quashed by the government, the defendants approached the court with the new
document issued by the government, and Justice Abass Bello discharged them and
advised EFCC to base its case on other things if it hopes to continue with the
prosecution of same people on same matter.”
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