Fayose fires back at EFCC asking them to come and interview him in his office tomorrow

EKITI State governor Ayo Fayose has written to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) dismissing their suggestion that he visits their offices on September 20 saying that if the agency is that desperate to see him they should come to State House.

On October 15, Governor Fayose is due to leave office at the end of his tenure, after which the current immunity they enjoy from prosecution expires, meaning he can be arrested Waiting for him, the EFCC has already said it will re-open a case involving a 1.3bn poultry project he commissioned during Governor Fayose's first term that lasted between 2003 and 2006.

Aware of the fact that he is being sought, Governor Fayose took the initiative by volunteering to visit the EFCC offices rather than wait to be arrested. He wrote to the commission promising to visit their offices on October 16 after leaving office but the agency wrote back, asking him to submit himself for questioning on September 20.

In the latest exchange, Governor Fayose has fired back asking the EFCC to wait until October 16 at the expiration of his immunity if it cannot deploy its interrogators to Ado-Ekiti tomorrow. He also criticised the EFCC for writing to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and other security agencies demanding that he be placed on a watch list to prevent him from escaping from the country.

In another letter Governor Fayose wrote to the EFCC, he restated his readiness to make himself available for investigation and interrogation. In that letter, he contended that the action of the EFCC raised a serious question about its impartiality, neutrality and independence.

Governor Fayose made it clear in his letter that should the EFCC be so much in a hurry that its investigation cannot await October 16, he would be willing to answer questions from a team of investigators should they be willing to meet him in his office in Ado Ekiti on September 20. He reminded the EFCC that on December 19 2007, he willingly presented himself to the agency at its Lagos office.

“There is therefore nothing new or strange in my letter of 10th September 2018 which has been received and treated in bad faith and taste. I thought I was assisting due and fair process of law.”

“As a responsible citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who currently enjoys immunity under Section 308 of the constitution, it would amount to a breach of the constitution which I swore to uphold if I appear in your office on any date earlier than 16th October 2018. If done otherwise, it will set a wrong precedent for the constitutional institution that I represent," Governor Fayose added.

His letter further stated: His letter further stated: “Your commission by its actions, no doubt has presumed my guilt even prior to the commencement of investigation. This raises serious question about the impartiality, independence or neutrality of the commission in the matter as I feel harassed, intimidated and embarrassed by the imputation of crime and the innuendos of criminality underlining your correspondence which has been maliciously circulated widely.

"This in all implies a case of persecution rather than prosecution. While I have handed a copy of your letter to my solicitors for a careful study and advice, let me state here for the records, that there is nothing about me or my antecedents, as a long standing public figure to justify the commission’s action as I have never been a coward or criminal.

“You may wish to recall that in 2007, precisely on the 19th day of December, I willingly presented myself for EFCC investigation at your Lagos office. There is therefore nothing new or strange in my letter of 10th September 2018 which has been received and treated in bad

faith and taste. I thought I was assisting due and fair process of law."