Leave Yari to face his job, NGF advises EFCC

From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has advised the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and its Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, to desist from what it called unnecessary “shadow-boxing” and leave its chairman, Governor of Zamfara State, Dr Abdulaziz Yari, to face his job.
In a statement by the Head, Media and Public Affairs Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat, Abulrazaque Barkindo, said Yari has, for the umpteenth time, told the commission 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 EFCC 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, therefore, urges the public to note that this is not about any missing funds anymore as the NGF would like to categorically emphasise that it did not, at any material time, receive any funds from the Paris-London Club refunds on behalf of any states. All states’ funds were remitted to them directly, from the Federation Account by the Ministry of Finance. What the NGF received, it must be repeated here, were 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 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 two per cent which was paid to the consortium. Before then, states had agreed to pay consultants between 10 and 30 per cent as commission for recovering the over-deductions.
“The NGF is asking EFCC to instead look elsewhere for its real or imagined enemies and allow Yari face the enormous task of governing his state and leading the governors of Nigeria.”