‘Trial And Error’: EFCC Attempts To Seal Military General’s Maitama Home In Error

Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose has accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, of being a tool used to promote a vendetta against opponents of the All Progressives Congress, APC, government of President Muhammadu Buhari.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, July 12, 2016, signed by a media aide to the Ekiti governor, Lere Olayinka, Fayose disclosed that officials of the EFCC invaded a popular guest house on Gana Street in high-brow Maitama District in Abuja with the intention of sealing it based on a mere rumour that the place belonged to the Governor Fayose.

According to the statement, the Fayose stays in the guest house when he is in Abuja and such the EFCC thought the place belonged to him. But, when the agency’s operatives got to the property, they were confronted with the fact that the operator of the guest house leased the property from the owner for ten years. The EFCC operatives moved to the next property only to discover that belongs to a retired military general.

Fayose accused the anti-graft agency of conducting its investigation by “trial and error” saying that it is only in Nigeria that a law enforcement agency would arrest a suspect, then begin looking for evidence to use in prosecuting the person.

“Today [Tuesday, July 12, 2016], the EFCC demonstrated that it has been lying against Governor Fayose and other Nigerians all along by the failed attempt it made to seal off a property located on Gana Street, Maitama, Abuja that is being used as guest house just because the governor used to lodge there.

“It was at the point of sealing off the property that the owner of the Guest House told the EFCC officials that he only leased the property for ten years from its owner, a former chief of defence staff, who was
also a one-time minister of defence.

“The EFCC operatives moved to the next building to the Guest House, which is the residence of the retired army general and they were told by the general’s wife that the building being used as Guest House as
well the one next to it belonged to the general and not Governor Fayose.

“It is shocking that in its desperate bid to nail Governor Fayose so as to satisfy their paymasters, EFCC is going about claiming that properties owned by other law abiding Nigerians are owned by the governor and the result of this investigation by trial and error by the EFCC is the embarrassment it faced at Gana Street, Maitama, Abuja when its operatives went there to seal off a property belonging to a retired army general thinking that it belonged to the governor.

“That was the same way they told Nigerians that they discovered mansion in Asokoro, Abuja owned by the governor. Unknown to the EFCC, the mansion being referred to is a property rented by the Ekiti State
government and being used as Governor’s Lodge.”

While insisting that whatever properties owned by Governor Fayose were acquired through legitimate means, the government said like every other Nigerians, the governor reserves the rights to own properties and can also receive money from people to fund his election.