Indigenes of the North Central state under the aegis of Kogi Indigenes Assembly (KIA) has taken a swipe at political activist, Comrade Usman Okai Austin for accusing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC of being slow in the prosecution of former governor of the state, Alhaji Yahaya Bello accused of N80.2bn fraud.
Usman Okai also went ahead to say the confidence of the people in EFCC is waning.
However, this position did not go down well with KIA which believes that Usman Okai has jettisoned logic and common sense and acting on ethnic-induced hate, prejudice and sheer pull-him-down syndrome against Yahaya Bello.
In a release on Friday, Kogi Indigenes Assembly through its President, Dr. Ben Oguche urged the anti-corruption agency to ignore Usman Okai who he described as a serial political failure who is still nursing the injuries of multi-layered failure in several endeavours of life.
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According to him, Usman Okai signposts a tiny voice from one ethnic group in Kogi calling for Yahaya Bello’s head, which he said is not as a result of love for the state but desperation to see that the former governor goes down.
“We want to make it clear to Mr. Usman Okai Austin and his tribesmen who dine in the table of hate prepared in the coven of ethnic jingoism that the country’s legal system is such that people are not pronounced guilty while they struggle to prove their innocence.
“Every accused person is innocent until proven guilty. Unfortunately, our brothers have allowed their common sense of reasoning to be dwarfed by undue hate against a man whose offence is serving his people with utmost diligence and honesty.
“They are campaigning for persecution as against prosecution of Bello. They want to see him go down to satisfy their deep-rooted biases and predisposition.
“The question that has never been answered by these voices of anger is, where was N80.2bn to be stolen in Kogi State in 2016? The state did not receive half of the sum said to have been embezzled.
“The State only received the sum of N39bn as allocation in 2016. Therefore the said N80.2bn only exists in the figment of imagination of those parading the fake narrative. Even the state’s budget for the year was N70bn.
As far as we know, the activities of Austine Okai, Barr Okutepa SAN and certain persons in their class only reflect a gang of ethnic jingoists on a mission for vendetta for tribal reasons which is far from what EFCC represent.
“We also want to remind Usman Okai and his brethren that former governor Yahaya Bello stands as the only Governor to have a returned unspent money back to World Bank, in demonstration of integrity and transparency.
“This was also acknowledged and applauded by World Bank in a commendation letter sent to GYB.
“Additionally, former Governor Yahaya Bello also received an award of Transparency and Accountability in governance in 2021 and 2022 from World Bank”, he stated.
The Kogi indigenes therefore called on those calling for extra-judicial means to prosecute Yahaya Bello to have a rethink, noting that at a time when Nigeria’s human rights record is a subject of global concern, the country must not do anything that will worsen its worrisome record.
