The era of ‘baba has said’ is gone — Fayose demands list of looters before sale of property

Ayodele Fayose, governor of Ekiti state, has asked the federal government to publish the list of all stolen properties recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

In a statement on Wednesday, Fayose also asked the government to publish the names of owners of the properties before its purported plan to sell them.

He said the federal government cannot continue to “tell Nigerians stories without background” because “the era of Baba has said is gone.”

“The federal government should create a website where all the properties recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and to whom they were sold will be listed so that by one click, Nigerians will have information,” the statement issued by Lere Olayinka, his spokesman, read.

“Nigerians want to know how many properties were recovered and who bought the properties. Who authorised the sale? Nigerians want details, not propaganda because most of these properties have been sold and resold.”

The governor also said properties recovered by the EFCC under its previous chairmen should also be published because “many people were blackmailed and coerced to surrender their properties”.

He said a typical case is that of the Malabu oil deal “where people have been scandalised, harassed and their names destroyed via media trial and the attorney-general of the federation now come out to say that there is no enough evidence to try them.”

“What will now happen to the lies told against those people?” the governor asked.

“How can Nigerians continue to trust the position of the same EFCC that said in April 2016 that the allegation of corruption against Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) chairman, Danladi Umar, was mere suspicion and would be difficult to proof in court, but now charged the same CCT chairman to court on the allegation it described as mere suspicion?”

“The federal government should therefore publish and state clearly what has happened in the EFCC between 2006 and now. Nigerians need to know the recovered properties sold by Ibrahim Magu’s predecessor, Ibrahim Lamorde and other previous EFCC chairmen. Those who bought them should be made public too.”

Following a suit filed by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), a federal high court sitting in Lagos, in July 2017, asked the federal government to publish names of suspected looters.

Although the government promised to publish the names, it is yet to fulfill its promise.