Immediate past commissioner for Works in Kwara state, Engineer Rotimi Ilyasu, has debunked speculation that he was invited and grilled by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged financial misappropriation over projects he handled while he served the state government.
Speaking with members of the Correspondents’ chapel of the NUJ in the state, Engineer Ilyasu, who was the Kwara state commissioner between 2019 and 2023, said that he has not received invitation from either the EFCC or any anti-graft agency in the country since he left office.
The former commissioner, who is a son to one of the stalwarts of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Moro local government area of the state, described the speculations as parts of antics of political rivals in the area, with the aim to pull him down.
“I have never received invitation from the EFCC or any antigraft agency in the country since I left office. It’s all political. Their calculation is that I’ve become a political threat. They see that I’m bigger now and they want to pull me down. It should not all be about that. Before now, I’ve resolved within me that I’ll not be a disappointment to my people, especially, youth in the state, being a youth myself”, he said.
Recalled that an online platform had published that the EFCC invited the immediate past commissioner over an allegation bordering on N20 billion said to have been misappropriated under his watch.
The former commissioner, who defended Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq for the delay in appointing a new Works commissioner, three weeks after the inauguration of a new set of members of the state executive council, said that appointments are the prerogative of the state governor.
“He even drives commissioners to work and work well too. Permanent Secretaries can work too so are engineers in ministries. Projects are going on in the state, presently. The governor can always get things done. And work is going on, commissioner or no commissioner”.
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