Kogi Assembly Asks Tinubu To Sack EFCC Chair Olukoyede

The Kogi State House of Assembly has demanded the removal of Mr. Ola Olukoyede as the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The request was hinged on an alleged assassination attempt on Alhaji Yahaya Bello, Kogi’s former governor.

In a plenary session in Lokoja on Monday, the legislators decried the EFCC’s “unprovoked attack” on the Kogi State Government Lodge, describing it as an assault on the Kogi people and Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo.

The lawmakers alleged Bello’s persecution and accused the EFCC of seeking to murder both the current and past governors.

Recall that operatives of the anti-corruption agency were reported to have stormed the Kogi Governor’s Lodge in Abuja last Wednesday to effect Bello’s arrest.

The former governor had been declared wanted by the commission after he failed to honour its invitation for questioning regarding an alleged N80.2bn fraud.

Hon. Akus Lawal who moved the motion alleged that the EFCC was attempting to kill and humiliate the governors by their acts.

Other lawmakers agreed with this view, with Hon. Abu Jibril calling for Olukoyede to be charged with suspected assassination.

The lawmakers further called for Olukoyede’s removal. They voted in favour of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic plans but demanded Olukoyede’s immediate dismissal.

They resolved thus: “The unprovoked attack on the Governor’s Lodge and the firing of live rounds within a diplomatic residential zone further demonstrate that the EFCC has fully marinated in a sense of its own importance and power and now considers itself not only above the law but unanswerable to anyone or institution for its actions.”

“Because the EFCC Chairman has shown constantly gross incompetence, the House has resolved that the President should relieve him of his appointment with immediate effect and replace him with a competent officer who will give Mr. President’s crusade for the rule of law the needed effectiveness,” the lawmakers demanded in their resolution.

Hon Yahaya Umar, representing Omala State Constituency said, “The unlawful conducts of the EFCC show that the intention of the chairman is not to arrest former Governor Yahaya Bello, but to ridicule the state.

“The chronology of how the event happened shows that the problem of the chairman is not with the offences being alleged, but that they want to disgrace the defendant and Kogi State in general.”

The Deputy Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt Hon. Comfort Nwuchiola Egwaba, said, “The EFCC is just trying to give the former Governor a bad name through their media trial. The EFCC is not sincere in this fight. It has an agenda it is pursuing and the entire people of the state, particularly the women and youths, will not accept this.”

Kogi Assembly Asks Tinubu To Sack EFCC Chair Olukoyede is first published on The Whistler Newspaper