By Ugoji Egbujo
The glory has departed. In the Obasanjo era, politicians dreaded the EFCC. When Ribadu was at the helm, the EFCC didn’t do tales by moonlight. Obasanjo and Ribadu were not saints, but against corruption, they barked and bit. Under their watch, the Eagle would have broken its beak and neck rather than allow this Bello-Ododo charade. It’s getting messier. The EFCC looks castrated.
How then does Tinubu seek to renew hope if his government cuddles the most high-profile political criminal suspects so shamelessly.
It churns the stomach. A wanted criminal suspect waltzed into the premises of a law enforcement agency, took pictures and walked away. All happening in broad daylight on a September afternoon, only a few months after the head of the agency had sworn to prosecute the high profile suspect or he would resign to preserve his soul. This script is a rhapsody of nonsense.
A man whom the law enforcement
agency had accused of stealing poor people’s billions, whom it had asked the
public to look out for and help arrest wherever and whenever seen, whom it has
dragged before a judge and against whom it has a subsisting order. That
man visited the headquarters of this foremost law enforcement agency in the
company of some clowns, marched around the premises and left. It was comical
nonsense.
It was so outrageously bizarre that not a few are eager to implicate juju. While the wanted man was at the EFCC taking pictures, his aides were telling the world their principal had gone to honour an invitation by the EFCC. He must have left the premises when the EFCC regained consciousness. Possibly embarrassed and seeking to save face, it boldly issued a dubious statement that fooled the public.
Such a
robust and printed denial by a law enforcement agency should be authoritative.
But sadly, it’s was flippant deceit. Its falsity compounded the
confounding surreality of the unfolding drama. And once the wanted man released
videos to prove his claim, those who had fingered juju started to nod their
heads. The EFCC should never tell gratuitous lies. Integrity should be
its watchword.
Despite the fact that the EFCC
chairman had once offered the wanted man an innocent backdoor treatment, it was
difficult to imagine how they let him get away without the merest of a scuffle.
The EFCC has, with rampant midnight raids against yahoo-yahoo boys proved that
it has a feral side. So how could they be so unmindful of their institutional
reputation as to let a wanted man walk away and leave them lie about it? The
only plausible explanation for the nonsense was juju.
But where was the outrage? The
president and his presidency were silent. His critics say the president’s
apathy and lethargy towards corruption amongst his political allies and
allocation of pseudo-immunity to cronies were expected. They accuse him
of prioritising political loyalty over patriotism, and electoral
conquests over statesmanship. They blame his lukewarmness for the impotence of
the EFCC against the big wigs. With him on the saddle and fiddling while
corruption blossoms in the corridors of power across the country, they predict
a steady national regression into the moral abyss.
The attorney general is mute.
What about his professional conscience? He is conversant with the effort
that has been made over the years to build a law enforcement institution
that can stare at corruption. He understands the nefarious consequences of this
ludicrous precedent. He knows that thieving politicians will be
emboldened and will celebrate state assisted temerity of Ododo . All a sitting
current corrupt governor needs now to retire above the law is to find a plastic
puppet to succeed and protect him. Because the law enforcement now mews,
shivers and genuflects before feral governors flaunting immunity promiscuously.
The public is alarmed. Tongues
have started to wag in the streets. Some say the EFCC is now the
new National Arts Theatre. In the midst of so much hardship and political
dispossession, Nigerians are never bereft of barbarous humour. That
statement by the EFCC EFCC that sought to confuse the public, that
failed to mention that the wanted man came into the premises, was stuff
of shabby mendacity. It must be deleted from all archives. Who knows how
yahoo-yahoo boys feel now. Beleaguered Bello is still innocent. Ebullient Ododo
is still innocent. But they have in a way combined to demystify the EFCC and
inspire crooked politicians.
But the real drama started hours after Bello left
the EFCC. At midnight that day, the EFCC surrounded the Kogi Governor’s lodge
in an apparent attempt to arrest Bello. It was shambolic. Shots were fired. It
proved predictably futile. To return to the Kogi Governor’s lodge, after the
first attempt months ago ended in a humiliating snatch of Bello by Ododo from
the claws of the EFCC, must be stuff of desperation or cover-up. In times past,
once the EFCC swooped, suspects rarely got away. The EFCC needs more than
prayers. Because the rumours now circulating in the streets are not healthy.
ome media houses have reported
that the visit of Bello to the EFCC was arranged by some principalities in
Abuja. Bello was supposed to show up. Then the EfCC would pat him on the back.
Some wish-washy plea bargain. He would return some money to government coffers
in exchange for watery charges. Then he can resume his life as the
founder of modern Kogi with his reputation intact. Then the EFCC can resume
their war against yahoo-yahoo with some renewed moral authority.
However, according to the report by The Cable, when Bello showed up at the car park of the EFCC, the EFCC chairman wasn’t ready to play along with the plan. So someone asked Bello and Ododo to leave the scene. The security personnel of the EFCC pretended they didn’t see Bello. The report said the arrangement was cooked somewhere in the presidency. So Bello and Ododo perhaps retired to the Kogi Gov’s lodge to have dinner and evaluate the EFCC chairman’s intransigence.
Then some
time around midnight, the EFCC came calling. Rude, right? Gunshots were
exchanged. Some say the midnight visit was a face-saving manoeuvre by the EFCC.
Others say it is part of a new script.
Perhaps that ties it up. The government is only willing to uphold the constitution and champion the rule of law selectively. This ties it up better than juju.This narrative of criminal complicity by highly placed persons to buy the wanted man a soft landing ties it up neatly.
It explains the comical visit to the EFCC. It
explains the somnambulism of the EFCC. It exonerates the dumb press
release and the lies embedded in it. It explains the notice-me pretentious
midnight fireworks at the Kogi governors lodge. It explains everything. But
these rumours must be consumed with a pinch of salt until the EFCC summons the
courage to tell it all to the common citizens whom it serves.
The EFCC chairman is an honest
man. He vowed to prosecute Bello not to pamper him with a padded cushion
of a soft landing. Bello is innocent until proven guilty. But the chairman
knows that Bello provides the agency with an opportunity to renew hope in
the watching masses and the sneering international community who have
lost confidence in law enforcement agencies in the country.
*Dr.
Egbujo is a commentator on public issues
No comments:
Post a Comment