Former Governor of Katsina State, Ibrahim Shema, has accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, of being used by his successor to carry out false and malicious propaganda against him.
The EFCC had on Wednesday declared the ex-governor wanted over an alleged N76bn fraud, and for refusing to honour several invitations extended to him.
Shema in a letter addressed to EFCC’s acting chairman, Ibrahim Magu, on Thursday, stated that he had honoured the EFCC’s invitation and wondered why the agency would go ahead to declare him wanted.
However, the ex-governor said he had to cancel his trip to Saudi Arabia in June this year in order to honour the invitation only for him to be told that the officer in charge of the case was out of town.
Shema explained that the EFCC had written a letter, signed by Hyacinth A. Edozie and sent to a wrong address of Wole Olanipekun & Co. asking the law firm to make him available for an interview June 28, 2016.
“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,” he said.
The former Governor said his lawyer wrote a letter to the EFCC on June 28, 2016 addressed to Edozie and copied the acting chairman.
According to him, “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.”
The Son-in-law to former president Umaru Yar’adua said he was shocked to read in the papers that he had been declared wanted by the EFCC.
He accused the anti-graft agency of being used by his successor, Governor Bello Masari, who is a member of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Shema 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 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.
“The EFCC deliberately embarked on false propaganda against me and my person by positing that I have ignored several invitations which it extended to me,” he concluded.