Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, has accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, of deliberate witch-hunt as the anti-graft agency asked for minutes of the state’s security meetings.
The governor, reacting to EFCC’s demand for minutes of Benue State Security Council meetings between 2015 and 2018, decried the level of harassment and intimidation of officials of his government by the anti-graft agency since he dumped the All Progressives Congress, APC, for the PDP. He stressed that the commission had not relented in persecuting him since his defection.
In a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Terver Akase, Governor Ortom disclosed that the commission had deliberately continued to ground the state government’s activities with persistent invitation of its officials to its office in Abuja.
The governor hinted that the anti-graft agency had reduced the persecution to ridiculous level, adding that “the EFCC seems not to have been done with the state government; everyday the commission invites not less than seven government officials to Abuja. “The victimization has reached a level where the commission is demanding minutes of the security council meetings of the state. This is a deliberate witch-hunt against our administration, all intended to cripple our government. “Does the statutory mandate of the commission include regulation of states’ security affairs? If we may ask, what does the EFCC want to do with minutes of our security council meetings? “We wonder why Benue is being singled out for witch-hunt. Governor Ortom is not the first sitting governor to defect to another political party. Why is his case different? “The EFCC ought to know that monetary approvals are not given during security council meetings as such duties do not fall within the purview of the council.”
