Nigeria’s anti-graft police, the EFCC declared that the PDP governorship candidate in this Saturday's governorship election in Ekiti state, Ayo Fayose remains an indicted person who has a case to answer over corruption charges hanging on his neck.
Beside Fayose, the Commission at a press briefing recently in Abuja disclosed that a former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Prof Charles Soludo and former Aviation Minister, Ms Stella Oduah were also been indicted for corruption and will be arraigned in court at the end of investigations.
“On former governor of Ekiti State, Hon. Ayo Fayose, I think the proper place to direct that question to is the Independent National Electoral Commission which is the umpire presiding over election, it is not the EFCC. Our job is not to preside over electoral matters. If the umpire believes that the electoral law allows such person standing trial in court even though he has not been convicted to stand for election; that is the job of the INEC, it is not for EFCC to decide.
“Fayose for your information is still standing trial on corruption charges before the federal high court, that case has been on since 2007. Based on an Appeal court decision, the matter was transferred to Ekiti state where the crime was committed and so that matter is still fresh and he has not been cleared, the case is still in court but by Nigerian Judicial tradition, we assume that he is innocent until proven guilty in court and we cannot at this moment convict him until the court decides”, Wilson Uwujaren, spokesman of the Commission reportedly made this statement while responding to a question on why the Commission will fold its hands and allow a corrupt politician standing trial for stealing stand for election that will confer on him immunity from being prosecuted for corruption.
On the former CBN governor, Soludo, the official said “the one that has to do with Soludo, yes I said the investigation has more or less indicted him and once investigation indicts somebody, the logical thing to do is to charge that person to court. If you are indicted by court investigation ,then the logical thing to do is to take you to court. When I started, the first thing I said was that the investigation has not been closed. No matter the number of years it has been on, we don’t put a timeline on an investigation, we look at all the angles to an investigation, so it is on and not closed. Also responding to an enquiry on the sacked Aviation Minister, the Commission said “on Stella Oduah, I have said it here and I want to say it again that that matter is not closed. She has been invited and she has made statement, she is not the only one that has been invited by the Commission. Officials of major parastatals in that ministry have also come here to make statement, so that investigation has reached an advanced stage and I can assure you few weeks or months time, you will get to know the details of our findings.”
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