Fayose Accuses EFCC of Coercing Witnesses to Lie against Him

Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti

The outgoing Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, Thursday alleged that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was coercing witnesses to implicate him since the commission has failed in its bid to establish any case against him.

In a letter to the EFCC dated October 10, 2018, Fayose specifically alleged that the commission was doing everything possible to induce and or coerce Mr. Maroun Azeez Mecheleb to make false statement to implicate me when he appears in your office at noon yesterday.

“A situation where a prospective witness is being induced or coerced to change his earlier statement by the operatives of the commission is nothing but persecution,” Fayose stated.

He, however, said the seeming bias of the anti-graft commission, notwithstanding, he will be at its Abuja office on October 16, 2018, as earlier promised.

The letter with reference number EK/Gov1/28/Vol1/13 read: “I have always been made to know that the statutory functions and powers of your commission are neither to persecute nor compromise the integrity of the commission.

“Permit me to stress that a situation where a prospective witness is being induced or coerced to change his earlier statement by the operatives of the commission is nothing but persecution.

“Therefore, it is important to bring to your notice that I am aware of your desperate efforts in the last 48 hours to procure evidence by ‘hook or crook’ to ‘nail’ me.

“Specifically, I know as a fact that your commission has been doing everything possible to induce and or coerce Mr. Maroun Azeez Mecheleb to make false statement to implicate me (when he appears in your office at noon today (yesterday) as a foundation for you to fabricate trumped up charges against me notwithstanding the fact that the said witness who only returned to Nigeria in the last three weeks had earlier made two statements in charge No. FRN vs. Abiodun Agbele and Ors. Copies extracted from the earlier proof of evidence are attached for ease of reference.

“Regardless, I look forward to seeing you on October 16, 2018.”