Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has condemned the continuous detention of the immediate past Governor of Katsina State, Ibrahim Shema by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Fayose described Shema’s incarceration as further demonstration of the anti-graft agency’s lack of respect for the fundamental rights of Nigerians as enshrined in the 1999 constitution.
Therefore, he advised the EFCC to either release Shema immediately or charge him to court if there is any evidence of corruption against him rather than continue detaining him.
In a statement issued on his behalf on Thursday by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Gov. Fayose decried what he termed the continuous reign of impunity by the EFCC, saying it was anti-democratic tenets.
He said, “In saner climes, anti-corruption agencies will only arrest suspects after prima facie case had been established against them and they are charged to court almost immediately, unlike the Nigeria’s EFCC that will arrest suspects and detain them indefinitely while looking for evidences to prosecute them. Funny enough, the EFCC will even expect the suspects to supply evidences with which they will be prosecuted”.
Mr. Fayose said if Shema was being held on the strength of the petition written by the All Progressives Congress (APC) government of Katsina State, the anti-corruption agency must also tell Nigerians what happened to the several petitions written against APC leaders, especially former governors, whose tenure ended in 2015 like Shema.
