Youths from nineteen northern states under the auspices of Arewa Youth for Good Governance (AYGG) have called on the anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) not to listen to politicians masquerading as members of civil society organizations, who are bent on persecuting the former governor of Kogi State, Alh Yahaya Bello.
AYGG instead told EFCC to focus on its court process and let the judicial process flow seamlessly to its logical conclusion and shun embittered politicians pressuring it to explore extra-judicial means to persecute the Kogi former governor as against prosecuting him.
This is contained in a release on Monday signed by the AYGG National Coordinator, Dr Ahmed Mailafia and its Secretary General, Comrade Takum Elias.
This came as a response to a statement credited to one ~Jacob Nadeco~ and ~Onuma Peter~ both of whom are sympathizers of the defeated Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate in the 2023 governorship election in Kogi, Muri Ajaka. In their statement, the SDP agents had attempted to explore blackmail to pressure the EFCC to abandon its prosecution of Bello and toe the path of persecution.
In the release jointly signed by Dr Ahmed Mailafia and Comrade Takum Elias, they queried why the prosecution of Yahaya Bello has become the only project SDP as an opposition party through its agents has continued to bandy about just to validate their existence in the state since its fatal defeat in the November last year governorship election.
AYGG also wondered why Ajaka who lost in the election has chosen to jeopardize the career path of Mr. Onuma, a staff of Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) by hiring him to embark on such a demeaning and disgusting assignment for him (Ajaka) in contravention of civil service rule.
“We are shocked that a party so boldly rejected by the voters at the polls has continued to chase shadows by launching a campaign of calumny against Yahaya Bello. SDP, its rejected candidate and wounded agents have not failed to show how much of bad sportsmen they are since the people of Kogi picked APC’s Usman Ododo over them.
“They have continued to weep over spilled milk by their desperation to pull the former governor down. We find this worrisome, preposterous and the height of uncivility.
“One would have imagined that these wounded political actors posing as members of civil society will allow the judiciary do its work under most objective and unbiased atmosphere. We have not seen this, instead we see a multi-layered desperation to tag a dog a bad name just to hang it.
“Since they are sure that Yahaya is guilty of financial misconduct allegation against him, they should allow the court decide, instead of deploying blackmail against the EFCC, the court and the judiciary in general$, AYGG says.
It therefore called on Ajaka to stop promoting inter-ethnic rivalry, tribe-induced hate, and political prejudice against Yahaya Bello, saying such actions will undermine efforts to build a Kogi that will be the envy of others states. The group cautioned that the ethnic hate the desperate SDP agents are promoting has tendency to cause crisis that may consume the peace of the state.
