Ex-Governor slams EFCC for declaring him wanted

Shema also accused the current Governor of Katsina state, Bello Masari, of using the anti-graft agency to hound him.




The former Governor of Katsina State, Alhaji Ibrahim Shema has slammed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for declaring him wanted.

Shema said he had to cancel his trip to Saudi Arabia to honour the anti-graft agency’s invitation in June 2016.

He said when he got to the EFCC office, he was told that the officer handling his case was not around, adding that the anti-graft agency did not re-schedule.

The EFCC declared the former Katsina Governor wantedon Wednesday, September 14, 2016, for allegedly diverting state funds.

Shema also accused the current Governor of Katsina state,Bello Masari, of using the anti-graft agency to hound him.

He said “As a senior citizen of this country, a legal practitioner of 32 years post-call experience, and a two-time Governor of Katsina State, I not only feel seriously embarrassed, disturbed, surprised and confounded by the report sponsored by EFCC, but also feel sorry for our dear country.

“I feel sorry for the pitiable situation we have found ourselves as Nigerians where and when a sacred institution like the EFCC is pressurised and used to sponsor fake, false, malicious, misleading and unfounded allegations against someone like me, who the EFCC has not at any time accused of fraud, embezzlement, inflation of contract, or any misdemeanour at all.

“The EFCC deliberately embarked on false propaganda against me and my person by positing that I have ignored several invitations which it extended to me.”

In a letter to the EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, Shema said“Without any formal invitation to me, the EFCC purported, by a letter dated June 17, 2016, sent to a wrong address of Wole Olanipekun & Co. asking the law firm to make Dr. Ibrahim Shehu Shema available for an interview with the undersigned on Tuesday, June 28, 2016.The letter was signed by Hyecinth A. Edozie.

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“Despite the incongruity in the way and manner the invitation was extended to me through a counsel – and also through a wrong address of the same counsel, and notwithstanding the fact that I was already billed to travel to Saudi Arabia for the lesser hajj (Umrah) on the appointment day, I cancelled all the engagements to honour the invitation with my counsel on the said June 28, 2016, only to be informed, around 10am on that day that the interview would no longer hold, as Mr. Hyecinth A. Edozie was out of Abuja, and that a new date, after Sallah, would be communicated.”

Alhaji Ibrahim Shema was the Governor of Katsina state from 2007 to 2015.