Governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have warned the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) against witch-hunting its party officials.
The governors were responding to the invitation of three officials of the party by the antigraft agency over alleged misappropriation of N10 billion, which the Secondus-led National Working Committee (NWC) had already denied.
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The forum, in a statement by its Director-General, Hon CID Maduabum, said the invitation of the officials over a ‘spurious’ petition by a disgruntled former member of PDP raised questions on the seriousness and impartiality of the anti-graft agency to do its work.
The statement read: “While PDP as a political party is accountable to its members and the general public for its actions, we are, however, concerned that the old tactics of using the EFCC to silence political opposition is creeping into our polity once again.
“We had expected that the EFCC under new leadership will learn from the mistakes of its predecessors.
“It is a misplaced priority for EFCC to abandon revelations of monumental fraud by various officials and agencies of the Federal Government to pursue the PDP which is the main opposition party doing a yeoman’s job of preventing the descent into chaos and anarchy in Nigeria.
“Perhaps certain interests in government are worried about the increasingly assertive role the PDP is playing in calling out corruption in government and wants to weaken and silence it.
“Even the petition in question did not make a single allegation of misuse of government funds, or cheating of any individual or public authority by the PDP.
“It is therefore surprising that EFCC should use its scarce human and other resources to begin an investigation into PDP finances.
“If EFCC is even-handed and non-partisan, it should also conduct an investigation into other political parties including APC, the ruling party.
“PDP is up to date in making financial returns as required by the Constitution to INEC and we are not aware that INEC made any complaints to EFCC on PDP’s returns.
“The times are really perilous. We face existential threats as a nation and PDP shouldn’t be distracted from its main role as a political watchdog on behalf of Nigerians”.
