Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, has again written to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over their declaration that he should be arrested when sighted trying to travel abroad.
The governor in another letter to agency suggested a September 20 date for the agency to interrogate him in his office in Ado-Ekiti.
The governor said EFCC should wait till October 16 at the expiration of his immunity if it cannot deploy its interrogators to Ado-Ekiti on the suggested date.
He criticized the EFCC for writing 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 to evade justice.
In the latest letter Fayose forwarded to the EFCC in which he restated his readiness to make himself available for investigation and interrogation, Fayose contended that the action of the EFCC raised a serious question about its impartiality, neutrality and independence.
The letter from the governor’s table dated September 14 which was made available to reporters in Ado-Ekiti on Tuesday, Fayose said: “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.
“I carefully chose that date (October 16, 2018) being the next day after the expiration of my tenure upon which the immunity I enjoy will lapse to avoid any form of insinuation and was in good faith.
“While drafting my response to yours of 14th September 2018, my attention was drawn to your widely publicized letter of 12th September 2018 to the Comptroller General, Nigeria Customs Service and similar agencies, directing them to watch-list and arrest me on an imagination that I might leave Nigeria to escape investigation.
“It has finally put in context, your Commission’s hurriedly deleted online statement via EFCC Nigeria @OfficialEFCC a day after the Ekiti governorship election that: “The parri is over; the clock of immunity turn apart, and the staff broken. Ekiti Integrated Poultry Project/Biological Concepts Limited N1.3bn fraud case file dusted off the shelves. See you soon.”
“Your Commission by its actions, no doubt has presumed my ‘quilt’ even prior to the commencement of “investigation”. This raises serious question about the impartiality, independence or neutrality of the Commission in the matter. 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. 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.
“Notwithstanding the demonstrated hate and prejudice, I reaffirm my willingness to make myself available to answer questions within my knowledge on the day you may indicate after the expiration of my term of office on the 15th October 2018.
“If for any good reasons, your investigation cannot await the date suggested in my earlier letter, without prejudice to Section 308 of the Constitution, I will be willing to answer questions from your team of investigators should they be willing to meet me in my office in Ado Ekiti on the 20th September 2018 indicated in yours.
“Save as above, I will appreciate any date convenient to you after 15th October 2018, otherwise, expect me on the 16th October 2018 at 1pm as earlier stated.”
