‘It’s wrong to freeze government accounts’ — Yari tackles EFCC

Abdulaziz Yari, chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), says the freezing of state government accounts is unconstitutional and wrong.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Zamfara governor described such action by anti-corruption agencies as shutting down of government.

He reacted to the freezing of bank accounts belonging to Benue state by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged abuse of the state security funds.

Less than 24 hours after, the EFCC also froze the accounts of Akwa Ibom state.

Yari said a state like Benue facing insecurity might not be able to live up to expectations.

“The freezing of any account of the state government whether Benue or anywhere is unconstitutional and is not right,” he said.

“That is shutting down government. Government must spend, most especially Benue that is facing insecurity challenges.

“Well, we don’t know why the EFCC took the action. But if indeed EFFC froze the account, from my point of view, it is wrong.

“This government will not sit down and oversee unlawful operation from the security agencies. From what happened yesterday, everyone can understand that government is following due process and the laws of Nigeria. For one to just send security agencies to shut down the national assembly, and the action that followed, that is what gave credit to this government by local and international community.

“Similar thing had happened in 2011 and 2014 respectively, but nothing was done about it. This time around, government said enough is enough. But the government of Muhammadu Buhari is following due process and will never oversee an unlawful activity by any security agency. So in the case of Benue, I believe something must be done.”