Rivers Govt denies withdrawing N11bn, tells EFCC to operate within the law

Read the state government’s statement below…

The attention of the Rivers State Government has been drawn to a publication in The Punch newspaper of Friday, 24/06/ 2016. The report alleges that one “Mr Kinsgsely Fubara”, said to be a Director of Finance and Administration, in the Rivers State Government House, made repeated financial withdrawals from the Central Bank of Nigeria and Zenith Bank, to the tune of 11 billion Naira.

According to the report, the “suspicious withdrawals” on behalf of the Rivers State Government were made between December 2015 and February 2016.

The government categorically denies this fabricated and irresponsible publication by the Punch.

The Rivers State Government never conducted such financial transactions and the report is patently false.

The Rivers State Government has no record of any staff known as Kingsely Fubara. This must be a fictional character created by the All Progressives Congress (APC)) and the Punch newspaper to embarrass the State Government and deceive the public.

The Punch report also indicated that the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) has directed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe these so-called withdrawals. Such a directive, if true, would be a manifestly illegal and ridiculous proposition.

By law, the Rivers State Government is accountable to the Rivers State House of Assembly and the people of Rivers State, not to the Attorney General of the Federation.

This is a totally fictitious report typically orchestrated by the APC and its media allies.

But the story raises fundamental questions about the moral horror that confronts a nation where an anti-graft agency becomes openly partisan in all its intentions and actions.

There is universal concern that the EFCC is playing an extremely corrosive role in the current political dispensation. Rather than fight corruption in a professional and dispassionate manner, the EFCC behaves shamelessly like an integral organ of the APC.

An anti-graft commission that targets only opposition politicians and critics of the failed policies of the APC government is a national embarrassment.

Has the EFCC ever heard of one Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, the former governor of Rivers State and current Minister of Transport? Despite receiving over three trillion Nairain eight yearsas governor, Amaechi left the most abandoned projects in the history of Rivers State, since 1967. Several petitions against Amaechi, supported by sworn affidavits, have all been summarily ignored by the EFCC.

Even chieftains of the APC have publicly acknowledged Rotimi Amaechi’s stupendous financial contributions to the party’s presidential campaign in 2015. These financial contributions, estimated to be in billions of Naira, constitute serious financial crime against the people of Rivers State.

The Government and people of Rivers State will resist any politically-motivated targeting of its leaders by any agency of the Federal Government, by whatever name it is called.

Signed:
Dr. Austin Tam-George,
Commissioner for Information and Communication,
Rivers State.