The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has stated that the Commission will pursue anyone involved in financial crimes, regardless of political affiliation.
Olukoyede stated that, contrary to critics’ accusations of bias toward the ruling party, the anti-graft agency is driven solely by its mandate to hold all corrupt individuals accountable, regardless of their political affiliation.
“If we discover that you have stolen money, you will have questions to answer, regardless of whether you are from the APC, PDP, Labour Party, NNPP or SDP,” Olukoyede said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday.
“So, irrespective of your political affiliation it is our duty to make sure that we do the right thing. So, for us, the issue is, have you allegedly committed an offence? Have we discovered an issue that you need to answer for? That is what drives our processes, that is what drives our action.”
Speaking further on the alleged hounding of the opposition, Olukoyede said that more members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have been prosecuted than those from the opposition.
“If you check the statistics of our work, the area of investigation, prosecution, particularly high-profile case, you will perhaps find more members of the ruling party, some of the cases we have done. So, we must be judged fairly.”
According to the EFCC Chair, it would be an injustice for the Commission to avoid investigating and prosecuting opposition members simply because of what critics might say.
“You will find prominent members of the ruling party as part of the people we have investigated and filed charges against. So, for us to close our eyes to people who perhaps are not members of the ruling political party will be unfair to us and will be an injustice on,” he said.
