Barely three weeks after the Kano State governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, defected to the All Progressives Congress, APC, operatives of the Economic and Financial Commission, EFCC, yesterday moved against him.
In a move reminiscent of the Obasanjo days, agents of the anti-graft agency took away the speaker of the House of Assembly, Gambo Salau, and all the principal officers as well as the Clerk, for grilling.
The speaker and all other principal officers were first stripped of their security details and moved into a vehicle before being taken away to the EFCC office in Kano and later transferred to Abuja for what the operatives called “questioning.”
Reacting to the development, Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso described the action not only as politically motivated but also a brazen attempt to frustrate the Kano lawmakers from defecting to All Progressives Congress, APC.
The governor said: “It is crystal clear that the above mentioned public officials were arrested by the EFCC based on the orders from the above, because of the legislators’ defection to APC, in support of Governor Kwankwaso.
“This action is obviously to intimidate and cow them into submission for choosing to move to the progressive fold.
This action is not only despicable and absurd but also capable of igniting crisis in the polity, thereby breaching the relative peace that is being enjoyed in Kano state. It is regrettable that the EFCC is allowing itself to be a tool of witch-hunt in the hands of the powers that be.”
But the commissioner said that those taken to Abuja were merely responding to an invitation to be able to respond to allegations of fraud raised by a petitioner against them.
Spokesman for EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, told Vanguard that the officials were not taken by force but that they willingly came to honour an invitation over a petition bordering on the supplementary budget recently passed by them.
Those taken into EFCC custody included the Speaker, Gambo Salau, his Deputy, Majority leader, Hamisu Ibrahim, Deputy Majority leader, Minority leader, Deputy minority leader, the Chief Whip, Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Chairman, House Committee on Finance and the Clerk of the Assembly.
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