EFCC Probe: Lai Mohammed Replies Gov Matawalle
Says it’s a personal opinion
The Federal Government has described as a personal opinion the call by Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State for the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) to investigate the Federal Executive Council (FEC) members and presidency officials in the eight of President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
Obviously taking in its stride Matawalle’s recent outburst against the EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa claims of inviting outgoing governors and their commissioners for interrogation, the government, through the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the Zamfara Chief Executive is exercising his freedom of expression.
Mohammed said the governor has the right and only expressed his personal views in charging the anti-graft agency to extend its investigation to the presidency and the outgoing ministers.
“The governor has the right to make suggestions, that is his own opinion”, the Minister said in response to a question on Governor Matawalle’s challenge to the EFCC on probing the activities of FEC members and Presidency officials in the last eight years.
Governor Matawalle had, in daring the EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, to go after President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet members and other top officials, cautioned the anti-corruption agency to stop castigating governors and their appointees while refusing to beam its searchlight on the Presidency and members of FEC.
He demanded that the Commission’s probe must be ‘holistic and not selective’, saying; “The investigation must be holistic and not selective. It is in this respect that the recent invitations and pronouncements by the EFCC Chair are imbalanced, incomplete, hypocritical, and unnecessarily skewed.
“I demand that the EFCC chair extend similar invitations to officers of the Presidency and members of the Federal Executive Council, which is the highest tier of government in the country.”
