EFCC lied, I didn’t shun its invitation, says ‘wanted’ ex-governor

Ibrahim Shema, a former governor of Katsina state, has accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of lying against him.

The commission declared him wanted on Wednesday, alleging that Shema had refused to honour its invitations.

But responding in a letter addressed to Ibrahim Magu, chairman of commission, Shema said he honoured an invitation to the commission on June 28, but was not attended to.

He denied the allegations levelled against him, and said the anti-graft agency was embarking on propaganda.

“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 letter read.

“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.

“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.

“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.

“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.”

The ex-governor said after his visit to the commission, his lawyer wrote a letter to the EFCC on June 28, addressed to Edozie and copied to the chairman.

He said that the letter was duly acknowledged at the EFCC but till date, but the commission has not responded to the letter or suggested any date.