President Musa Yar'Adua

For the first time, President Musa Yar'Adua has told former Governors James Ibori, Peter Odili and others charged for embezzlement and money laundering to face the Economic and Financial crimes Commission, EFCC, instead of hiding under his cover to evade justice.

Yar'Adua also denied knowledge of any former Governor involved in funding of his campaign for presidency.

The president said " I am not aware that anyone of the former Governors funded my campaign. if they have been found to have stolen from there states, they should be prosecuted."

Yar'Adua who spoke through his spokesman, Mr. Segun Adeniyi, urged all the indicted former Governors to defend themselves rather than using him as a cover.

The position of Yar'Adua came just as speculations were rife that Governor Bukola Saraki was lobbying the President on behalf of the indicted Governors to reduce the power of prosecution of the EFCC so as to save the former Governors from further embarrassment.

Adeniyi said, “The attention of the President has been drawn to media reports suggesting that he is hampering the activities of the EFCC in the fight against corruption.

“Specifically, the slant in most of the stories is that because the President intends to ‘protect’ some former governors who allegedly bankrolled his campaign, he has decided to curb the powers of the EFCC.

“I state very categorically that nothing can be further from the truth. Yar’Adua is very serious about his commitment to instilling discipline, transparency, respect for the rule of law and due process in the conduct of government business and remains resolute in his resolve to fight corruption and abuse of office.

“I also want to state that the President will support all the agencies of government responsible for bringing to justice people found to have abused their offices either in the past, now or in future.

“In doing so, however, the President is mindful that any goal pursued without recourse to due process and rule of law will be antithetical to the promotion of our democracy and can only achieve short-term results.

“President Yar’Adua firmly believes that in fighting corruption, nobody and no institution, and this includes the Presidency and himself as President, should be seen to be above the law and the 1999 Constitution.

“It is for this reason that he today (Monday) granted the following requests of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Justice Minister:

“That all agencies involved in the prosecution of criminal offences such as the EFCC and ICPC should report and initiate criminal proceedings with the consent and approval of the AGF as specified in relevant sections of the constitution.

“That the AGF should exercise the powers conferred on him pursuant to Section 43 of the EFCC Act 2004 to make rules or regulations with respect to the exercise of any of the duties, functions or powers of the EFCC.

“I like to emphasize that the decision to enforce the powers of the AGF was solely motivated by President Yar’Adua’s respect for due process and the rule of law and not by any desire to shield anybody from criminal prosecution.

“Further, the President directed the Attorney-General to ensure that steps were taken to avoid untidy, multiple criminal prosecutions as currently undertaken by the anti-graft agencies over the same offences.”

Adeniyi said that the President would not protect corrupt ex-governors and former public officers.