Leave Zamfara’s Yari alone, Nigerian governors tell EFCC

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF, has advised the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and its chairman, Ibrahim Magu, to desist from unnecessary “shadow-boxing” and do the needful by leaving Abdulaziz Yari, Governor of Zamfara State and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, to face his job.

The NGF stated this Wednesday in a statement by its spokesperson, Abdulrazak Barkindo.

“This is because our chairman and governor of Zamfara State Dr Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar had for the umpteenth time told the commission that he neither owns a plot of land in Lagos nor owns or intends to build a hotel in Lagos.

“Yari had denied any links with a $3 million hotel in Lagos which some online media attributed to him and in fact sued the publications responsible for that insidious report for libel. But for want of scapegoats in its battle against the National Assembly, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission continues to drag the governor’s name in the mud in a veiled effort to divert attention from the matters of the moment,” the NGF said.

The NGF also urged Nigerians to note that the EFCC action on the issue is not about any missing funds anymore, saying, “the NGF would like to categorically emphasise that it did not, at any material time, receive any funds from the Paris London refunds on behalf of any states”.

It said the Ministry of Finance remitted all states funds to them directly from the federation accounts.

“What the NGF received, it must be repeated here, was monies due to the consortium of consultants who verified the amounts due to all the states that were owed.

“Furthermore, the NGF would like to state that its involvement with the Paris-London Club refunds had saved the states colossal amounts of money individually and collectively because instead of the high percentages agreed upon by the individual states to their separate consultants, the NGF drew the percentages down to 2% which was paid to the consortium,” it said.

The NGF also said before then, states had agreed to pay consultants between 10 and 30 per cent as commission for recovering the over-deductions.

“It is however understandable that in the absence of a fall guy, the EFCC has consistently maligned the person of the Zamfara State governor and Chairman of the NGF, Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar, even when the need to so do was untenable, ridiculous and absent.

“The NGF is asking the commanding heights of the EFCC to instead look elsewhere for its real or imagined enemies and allow Yari Abubakar to face enormous task of governing his state and leading the governors of Nigeria,” the statement said.