BEVERLY HILLS, October 19, (THEWILL) – The youth wing of the pan Igbo socio-political organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, on Tuesday claimed that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is only persecuting the former First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, stressing that the agency is running a campaign of calumny to convict Jonathan’s wife at all costs.
This was contained in a statement signed by the youth group’s National President, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, which also accused the anti-corruption agency of always rushing to the media to convict suspects without thorough investigations.
EFCC investigators probing the ex-First Lady’s link with five choice buildings, including a N5billion hotel in Abuja, have unearthed seven additional properties believed to be owned by her https://staging.thewillnews.com/efcc-links-patience-jonathan-with-9-houses-2-hotels-one-plaza/.
The EFCC Deputy Director of Operations, Iliyasu Kwarbai did say that the wife of former President would not go scot-free if found guilty of corruption https://staging.thewillnews.com/patience-jonathan-wont-go-scot-free-efcc-assures-protesters/.
But Ohanaeze youths reacted by saying: “The EFCC is simply persecuting ex-first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan. She has already been found guilty without trial in a court of competent jurisdiction. This is unhealthy for our democracy. EFCC is clearly running a campaign of calumny intended to convict Dame Patience Jonathan at all cost. The former first lady is yet to be tried in court, yet the EFCC has been treating her as a criminal. This strategy of trial in the media must stop.
“To fight corruption, the process must be thorough and not selective. EFCC is not a court and must submit to the laws of the land. The haste to rush to the media to vilify suspects is responsible for the low number of convictions recorded by the EFCC.
“If we may ask, where are the wives of former first ladies including past Nigerian leaders who were at various times accused of corruption? Why can’t they be investigated? We can only take EFCC serious as anti graft agency when it investigates the likes of ex-Presidents, Ibrahim Babangida, Abdulsalami Abubakar, Olusegun Obasanjo, including late ones.”
Isiguzoro went on to call on the anti-graft agency to thoroughly investigate suspects before rushing to the media, stressing that such has injured the reputation of suspects who were later be found innocent of the charges levied on them.
