EFCC mocks Fayose in Tweet saying it is waiting for his tenure to end on October 16

ECONOMIC and Financial crimes Commission (EFCC) officials have revealed that they are patiently waiting for Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State to leave office on October 16 so they can prosecute him for alleged corruption.

On Saturday, Ekiti State went to the polls to elect a new governor and yesterday morning, the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec), declared Dr Kayode Fayemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the winner. Inec's official results showed that Dr Fayemi got 197,459 votes against the 178,121 votes secured by deputy governor and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Professor Kolapo Olusola Eleka.

Incumbent Governor Fayose who backed Professor Eleka, has been a thorn in the side of the APC government, acting as the unofficial spokesman of the PDP. In the run-up to the polls, he was involved in a bitter war of words with the government and even claimed that policemen were sent to physically assault him.

With the elections now over, Governor Fayose is getting set to leave office in October after which he will no longer have immunity from prosecution as enshrined in the Nigerian constitution. Waiting for him with the bated breath, the EFCC issued a message on Twitter saying that Governor Fayose should begin to prepare to visit the commission.

Referring to an investigation into Governor Fayose’s alleged N1.3bn poultry project during his first term that lasted between 2003 and 2006, the EFCC said the commission would be reopen the case. However, a large section of Nigerians on Twitter accused the EFCC of being unprofessional and fighting a one-sided anti-corruption war and subsequently, the anti-graft agency deleted the tweet.

It read, “The parri (party) is over, the cloak of immunity torn apart and the staff broken. Ekiti Integrated Poultry Project/Biological concepts Limited N1.3bn fraud case file dusted off the shelves. See you soon.”

Governor Fayose has been having a running battle with the EFCC since 2007 but it intensified in 2016 after it was discovered that the governor, while running for office in 2014, allegedly received over N1.3bn from the then minister of state for defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, who is now a member of the APC. This money was said to have emanated from the account of the Office of the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki, who has been in detention for nearly three years now.

As part of the investigations into the matter, Governor Fayose’s aide and trusted ally, Abiodun Agbele, who allegedly received the money from Senator Obanikoro, has since been arraigned by the EFCC while all of the governor's accounts have been frozen. Senator Obanikoro has since been converted to a prosecution witness and will be expected to give evidence against the governor when his tenure ends.