The Ekiti State Commissioner for Finance, Chief Toyin Ojo, and the Accountant General, Mrs. Yemisi Owolabi, may spend the prolonged holiday in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The suspects, who were arrested by the EFCC while Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, was inaugurating his presidential campaign on Thursday, were allegedly involved in the diversion of N7bn.
The money was alleged to have been part of the over N11bn bailout fund which was paid to the Ekiti State Government by the Federal Government.
The Spokesman for the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed to our correspondent on the telephone that the commissioner and the accountant-general were still in custody.
He, however, could not say whether they would remain in custody till Tuesday.
“Yes, they are still in custody. I don’t know when they will be released,” he said.
The Federal Government had declared Monday as a public holiday which implies that courts and government agencies will not be open till Tuesday.
Fayose had in a statement by the Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said it was obvious that “the hawks around President Muhammadu Buhari” were afraid of the governor’s declaration for the 2019 presidential election.
“The EFCC is obviously living up to its status as the attack dog of the All Progressives Congress government, but the Ekiti State Government, under Governor Ayodele Fayose, cannot be intimidated.”
Olayinka said the arrest was carried out with a view to embarking on another round of media trial against the governor and his government.
“It is funny that the EFCC, in the bid to carry out its usual hatchet job against Governor Fayose, failed to take into cognisance the subsisting court order, which forbids any official of the Ekiti State Government from being arrested by the EFCC. Up till today, the court order has not been appealed and it subsists.”
The government challenged the EFCC to tell Nigerians what had been done to the loads of petitions written against the immediate past APC government in the state.
