The
immediate-past governor of Katsina State, Alhaji Ibrahim Shema, has berated the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for declaring him wanted over an
alleged N76bn fraud.
Shema
said he had honoured the EFCC’s invitation and therefore wondered why the
agency would go ahead to declare him wanted.
The
ex-governor said this in a letter addressed to the acting Chairman of the EFCC,
Mr. Ibrahim Magu, on Thursday.
The
anti-graft agency had on Wednesday accused Shema of ignoring all its
invitations since December 2015.
However,
the ex-governor, who served as governor from 2007 to 2015, said he was invited
by the EFCC in June this year and he had to cancel his trip to Saudi Arabia to
honour the invitation.
Shema
said on getting to the Abuja office of the EFCC, he was informed by the
anti-graft agency that the detective in charge of his case was not in town and
the EFCC failed to reschedule.
He
said, “Without any formal invitation to me, the EFCC purported, by a letter
dated June 17, 2016, sent to a wrong address of Wole Olanipekun & Co.
asking the law firm to make Dr. Ibrahim Shehu Shema available for an interview
with the undersigned on Tuesday, June 28, 2016.The letter was signed by
Hyecinth A. Edozie.
“Despite
the incongruity in the way and manner the invitation was extended to me through
a counsel – and also through a wrong address of the same counsel, and
notwithstanding the fact that I was already billed to travel to Saudi Arabia
for the lesser hajj (Umrah) on the appointment day.
I
cancelled all the engagements to honour the invitation with my counsel on the
said June 28, 2016, only to be informed, around 10am on that day that the
interview would no longer hold, as Mr. Hyecinth A. Edozie was out of Abuja, and
that a new date, after Sallah, would be communicated.”
Shema
said his lawyer wrote a letter to the EFCC on June 28, 2016 addressed to Edozie
and copied the acting chairman of the EFCC
“The
letter was delivered, received, stamped and duly acknowledged at the EFCC
office on the same day June 28, 2016.
“To
date, the EFCC has not responded to the said letter, suggesting any date,” he
said.
The
former governor said he was therefore shocked to read in the newspapers on
September 15 that he had been declared wanted by the EFCC.
He
also accused the EFCC of being used by his successor, Governor Bello Masari, who
is a member of the All Progressives Congress.
He
said, “As a senior citizen of this country, a legal practitioner of 32 years
post-call experience, and a two-time Governor of Katsina State, I not only feel
seriously embarrassed, disturbed, surprised and confounded by the report
sponsored by the EFCC, but also feel sorry for our dear country.
“I
feel sorry for the pitiable situation we have found ourselves as Nigerians
where and when a sacred institution like the EFCC is pressurised and used to
sponsor fake, false, malicious, misleading and unfounded allegations against
someone like me, who the EFCC has not at any time accused of fraud,
embezzlement, inflation of contract, or any misdemeanour at all.”
Source:The Punch
Tags
Politics