…I’ll be at EFCC today with my bedclothes, pillowcase
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged that the Presidency has directed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to incarcerate, indefinitely, the outgoing governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose.
In a statement issued on Monday in Abuja, the National Publicity Secretary, of the PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, said information at the party’s disposal and all over the social media indicate that the Presidency has put the commission on alert to arrest the governor at midnight today and detain him indefinitely.
The alleged directive by the Presidency, the PDP said, was not unconnected with the plot to use the EFCC and other security agencies to incarcerate the governor owing to his persistent criticism of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government.
“This uncompromising stands of the outgoing governor against the present administration was the reason Ekiti State was invaded and taken by force during the last governorship election.
“By 12 midnight, the governor’s residence is expected to be surrounded by armed men of the EFCC under the pretense that they had information of his plot to escape. This is to achieve their plan to humiliate the governor and portray him in bad light to the public by dramatising his arrest.
“Nigerians can recall that it was the governor who offered to submit himself to the EFCC despite the commission’s clear display of bias and partisanship as demonstrated in its various actions, especially its tweets and putting the governor on security watch-list.
“The EFCC even unprofessionally showed its bias in deriding the governor, making light of a very serious matter by mocking him and asking him to come before his tenure elapsed, which the governor declined in line with the constitutional immunity,” the party said.
According to the statement, it was now beyond dispute that Fayose was not a scoundrel running away from justice.
It said whatever the EFCC, APC, and the Presidency’s spin-doctors might say, it was also clear to everyone that Fayose was not a coward; neither was he afraid of the EFCC.
“Fayose is prepared and ready to defend himself in the court of law. Neither the Presidency nor EFCC is a court of law. Since the EFCC said it had dusted up Fayose’s files, it should be ready to take him to court once he presents him at the agency’s office on Tuesday.
“Governor Fayose has offered to walk to the EFCC office by himself and nothing must happen to him tonight. The PDP condemns this resort to fascism by the APC government, saying the whole world should be at alert to see another demonstration of crude disrespect for the rule of law and rights of Nigerians,” the party said.
Meanwhile, Fayose said he would visit the EFCC on Tuesday (today) with his bedclothes and pillowcase.
Fayose’s immunity ends along with his tenure and he has been invited to the headquarters of the EFCC where he will answer to allegations that he received about N1.3bn from the Office of the National Security Adviser through the then Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro.
Fayose said, “I will be there on Tuesday. I am not begging for any bail. It is up to them. If they want me, they should just give me a bed. I have done by bed bedclothes, I have done my pillowcase, I have my English and Yoruba bibles. I am prepared for them. Nobody should worry about me. Only cowards die many times before their deaths.”
