The African Democratic Congress (ADC), has urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to stop conducting its operations in ways that portray the Commission as a political hit squad of the ruling All Progressives Congress
(APC).
The party cautioned the anti graft agency against perceived intimidation of opposition figures, describing the trend as selective investigations that smacked of dictatorship.
In a statement on Monday by the spokesman of the ADC, Bolaji Abdullahi, the party decried emerging pattern of re-opening closed cases by the EFCC.
It stated that old files are being dugged up, targeting members of opposition parties, a development the ADC said, casts the EFCC in the mould of a partial political enforcer.
“In recent days, several senior members of the opposition coalition have received EFCC summons that are clearly politically motivated.
“These are not fresh cases arising from new evidence, but new files opened in reaction to emergent political affiliations to intimidate key opposition figures.
“The EFCC was created to be a fearless defender of the Nigerian people’s trust, applying the law evenly to all, friend or foe, ruling party or opposition.
“Today, that vision appears to have been compromised. The Commission now operates like a department of the APC, deployed to fight government critics and opposition figures thereby achieving what the government cannot achieve through public debate,” the statement said in part.
The party added that it has observed how investigations into ruling party allies quietly fade away while opposition figures are dragged before the court of public opinion with sometimes decade-old allegations that have been hastily revived and dressed up as fresh evidence.
“This is selective prosecution, and selective prosecution is the death of justice.
“It does appear that in today’s Nigeria, one’s guilt or innocence depends on one’s party membership, not evidence.
“For example, since a certain former governor defected to the APC with his state’s entire political machinery, the EFCC’s investigations into his administration have vanished from public view. Not a question has been asked. Not a document leaked. Not a single update.
“Yet the same EFCC still somehow, finds means to reopen old cases against opposition leaders and pursue the stale allegations against them.”
The ADC said it does not augur well for the EFCC if people think that the commission is out to hunt opponents of the APC administration, while those under investigation are left off the hook once they align with the ruling party.
“Unfortunately, this is the widely established perception in Nigeria today, which the commission, by its recent actions, including the ongoing surreptitious harassment of opposition leaders, has given credence to.”
The ADC called on Nigerians, civil society organisations, and the independent media to resist “this dangerous slide into dictatorship and misuse of public institutions to achieve partisan objectives.”
The party declared that the EFCC does not belong to the APC, stressing that the agency belonged to the Nigerian people and funded by taxpayers, not the ruling party.
