The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has slammed the Presidency for linking some of its actions, especially the freezing of the account of the Benue State Government, to scripts written by the President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki.
In a statement on Sunday, the EFCC said its actions have nothing to do with Saraki but based on thorough investigation.
The anti-graft commission was responding to an article by the Special Adviser to the President Muhammadu Buhari on Political Matters, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, who said some agencies of the government were working with Saraki to achieve already predetermined ends.
Ojudu, who is based in the Office of the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, now the Acting President, said the EFCC, Department of State Services and the Police were acting Saraki’s scripts.
He also accused former Military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, of having provided the template for Saraki’s script.
He wrote in part in the article: “From the shenanigans at the Benue House of Assembly to the siege on National Assembly, the attack on judges home in the night, the so-called barricade of the Senate President’s house, the laughable kidnap of Boy Dino and ‘his 11 hours on a tree’, the freezing of the Benue and Akwa Ibom accounts all are scripted, produced and acted by Oloye (Saraki) Productions.”
Reacting through its spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, the EFCC said: “The attention of the EFCC has been drawn to a widely syndicated article by Senator Babafemi Ojudu, Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters entitled, ‘Fifth columnists in our recent history,’ wherein he portrayed the commission as a conscript in the devious plots by Senator Bukola Saraki to undermine the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The commission takes exception to the attempt to impute false motive to its investigative activities. The recent placement of a ‘Post No Debit Order’ on some accounts in Benue and Akwa Ibom states were the culmination of many months of painstaking investigative activities. To reduce such activities to the level of a stunt in a real or imaginary script by any politician is outrageous.
“It is important to state that the EFCC is not a party to the so-called script by Saraki. Members of the public should disregard the innuendo in Ojudu’s article as it is unfounded.
“The commission calls for circumspection on the part of political leaders, while urging them to seek clarification before making comments on matters they do not know about.”