Charge Metuh to court if you have evidence of fraud against him, Fayose tells Buhari

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has
challenged President Mohammadu Buhari to
direct the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) to charge the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) National Publicity
Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh to court if the
commission was sure of evidences of fraud
against him, saying; “the EFCC appears to be
operating a system in which an accused person is
first arrested, detained endlessly while the anti-
corruption agency goes about looking for
evidence.”
Governor Fayose, who maintained his support for
a genuine fight against corruption, challenged the
EFCC to also act on petitions submitted to it
against All Progressives Congress (APC)
chieftains and President Buhari’s election
sponsors.
Speaking through his Special Assistant on Public
Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka,
Governor Fayose cautioned that nothing untoward
must happen to Metuh, adding that the APC’s
desperation to decimate and silence the
opposition has dragged the Buhari-led government
in the mud of lawlessness.
The governor said; “In saner climes, you don’t
arrest people for alleged fraud and start to look
for evidence to prosecute them. Rather, before
you arrest anyone for fraud, anti-corruption
agencies
must have established a prima facie case and
arresting the suspect will only be to enable for
his or her arraignment in court.
“However, what we are witnessing in
Nigeria today is a situation whereby the
EFCC will arrest PDP leaders, humiliate
them by subjecting them to media trial,
detain them for weeks in the process of
trying to force them to make statements
during which the commission will be looking
for evidence.
“For instance, in the case of Metuh, we are
being told that the EFCC is insisting that he
must write statements and one begins to
wonder if it has now become mandatory for
an accused to write statements in law
enforcement agent’s custody. Shouldn’t the
EFCC have simply charged Metuh to court
based on its own evidence? Or is Metuh’s
statement the evidence the EFCC requires
to prosecute him?
“The international community, especially the
United Nations (UN), African Union (AU),
European Union (EU) and others are put on
notice on this condemnable act of arresting
and detaining opposition leaders by agents
of the Buhari-led government before fishing
for evidence.”
While challenging the President Buhari to extend
his anti-corruption crusade to those who
sponsored his election, Governor Fayose said; any
anti-corruption effort that targets only members
of the opposition and those with axe to grind
with the government of the day can never
succeed.
“If President Buhari did not wait for any
petition to move against PDP chieftains,
asking people to come forward with
allegations of corruption against APC
chieftains, especially those who sponsored
President Buhari’s election is clearly
hypocritical.
“Most importantly, that the EFCC Acting
Chairman, Ibrahim Magu even said the
commission do not have any petition
against APC chieftains when indeed there
are loads of petitions against ministers
serving in Buhari’s government and other
notable APC chieftains goes to show the
hypocrisy of the fight against corruption.
“It is even more hypocritical and anti-
democratic for the President to have turned
himself to the accuser, prosecutor and
judge, carrying on as if those he accused of
corruption have already been convicted,”
the governor said.