Ekiti govt to EFCC: Release arrested govt officials unconditionally or…

THE Ekiti State Executive Council has decried the arrest and continued detention of two of their members by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), saying the commission should release them unconditionally or charge them to court.

The council told newsmen in Ado Ekiti on Monday, at a press conference, that the continued detention of Chief Toyin Ojo, the Commissioner for Finance and Mrs Yemisi Owolabi, the Accountant-General was a classic abuse of power” and “a witch-hunt by pseudo-democrats in Abuja to diabolically incapacitate the state government.”

The state Commissioner for Information, Youth and Sports Development, Mr Lanre Ogunsuyi, who addressed newsmen, said the executive council after its fifth emergency meeting the arrest was “an aberration that once again portrays the Federal Government as incapable of understanding the best democratic ethos.”

Ogunsuyi claimed that the arrest of the two members of the executive was “in violation of a subsisting ruling of a court of competent jurisdiction restraining the supposed anti-graft body from inviting or arresting officials of the state.”

It called on the EFCC to “respect the rule of law by abiding by the subsisting court ruling,” saying “the options available to EFCC was to either grant the arrested state officials administrative bail or charge them to court if they had breached the law.”

The state government alleged that it was ironic that the same EFCC had allegedly “ignored repeated earnest petitions of the state government to investigate and prosecute the accusation of wanton looting of the state” by the previous administration in the state “in spite of incontrovertible evidences”, saying it was “chasing shadows and hindering the efforts of the present administration at correcting the anomalies and making life more meaning full for the people in the state.”

The Ekiti executive also condemned what he said was “the lopsided policies of the Federal Government which were skewed towards developing only All Progressives Congress (APC) states at the expense of other states of the federation perceived to be a stronghold of opposition.”

It said this was “a result of political intolerance and ignorance of the part of the Federal Government.”

Chief Ojo and Mrs Owolabi were arrested on September 28 and have since been in EFCC custody.