PRESS RELEASE

EFCC MISSING FILES: PRONACO TASKS YAR' ADUA 

The Pro National Conference Organisation, PRONACO has charged President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to set up a panel of enquiry to find out the truth between the claim by the chairman of the EFCC, Mrs Farida Waziri that she did not inherit 31 case files on ex-governors from her predecessor and the well publicised statement of mallam Nuhu Ribadu that he had completed investigations on 31 ex-governors.

The call became necessary following the controversy generated by Waziri’s claim that nobody handed over to her any case file on former President Olusegun Obasanjo or 31 case files on former governors.

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The spokesman of PRONACO, Mr Wale Okunniyi who spoke with journalists on the issue in Lagos yesterday declared that there is a missing link between the claims of the two anti-graft chiefs.

‘Certain questions need to be answered to be able to determine the truth of this matter. If indeed 31 ex-governors had been investigated and ready for prosecution before May 29,2007, between then and June 2008 when Waziri came on board (a period of over one year), why were these ex-governors not taken to court for prosecution?

Was there any handover document stating how many case files especially on ex-governors were handed over to Waziri? Was Ribadu’s claim then a statement of fact or a political statement or better still , was he just playing to the gallery? These and many more should be answered so as to determine the truth’.

Okunniyi said he was privy to the fact that CNPP petition against former president Olusegun Obasanjo was submitted to the Mallam Nuhu Ribadu led EFCC in 2007 and that the whole world was aware of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu media outburst, during the heat of the 2007 elections, about the inevitability of jailing 31 former governors, whom Ribadu claimed was being prosecuted him.

He said he however was alarmed by the emerging fact that the Ribadu administration did not handover those case files to the new leadership of EFCC under Mrs Waziri.

PRONACO has therefore called for an urgent probe into the handover details at the EFCC to unravel the true position of things “This is a grievous administrative lapse on the part of the EFCC and somebody must be responsible. We wish to know what went wrong between the two administrations at the EFCC. There must be an end to deliberate cover up and  media trials of suspects as this cannot help anti corruption crusade in the country “  

The group also tasked the new leadership under Waziri to begin fresh investigations and prosecution of past and present corrupt public officers without further delay in order not to fall into the same pit of her predecessor by declaring suspects guilty on the pages of newspapers to give the impression that the EFCC was working.

Okunniyi however charged Waziri to remain steadfast on the path of courage and beware of the traps and antics of those bent on discrediting the new anti corruption crusade.

Signed

Olubori Obafemi

Media Assistant

PRONACO