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From Jude Owuamanam, Jos
Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State has challenged the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nentawe Yilwatda, to prove the corruption allegations he levelled against his administration.
He said that no amount of provocation would push him to probe the financial dealings of the Simon Lalong administration.
Nentawe had, during a radio programme in Jos, alleged the Plateau government has the worst corruption cases in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
He had said officials and relations of the state governor are weekly visitors to the office of the anti-graft agency.
The national chairman had also alleged that projects executed by Governor Caleb Mutfwang did not match up with the quantum of funds the state had received in the last two years.
Nentawe had said, “There’s no state currently that’s that the government officials and the brothers and relations of the government officials being invited by the EFCC more than Plateau State.
“It’s a pointer that when every day, you’re having government officials visiting the anti-graft, almost every time, it’s a signal to you of the kind of governance that is in the state. That’s number one.
“Again, two years now, down the road, we would have seen some construction of projects in the state. We want to see the level of what quantum of money has been invested in those projects. They’re not major projects compared to the funds that comes to the states.”
However, the Special Adviser on Political Affairs to the Governor, Istifanus Mwansat, challenged the APC chairman to give concrete proof of his assertions.
While admitting the officials of the state government were being invited to the EFCC, but the motives were to explain financial transactions of his predecessor.
He said that since government is a continuum, most of the invitations bothered on activities of the past government.
Mwansat said, “I asked the question, since he knew or he knows that every week people go to EFCC on invitation, the question is, what are the issues that these government officials are being invited for? He didn’t mention any of the issues.
“But I will help him. Maybe he didn’t know. And if he knows and he forgot, let me remind him.
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Number one, the accountant general has been invited to EFCC. And it is expressly clear he has visited the EFCC to clarify issues of expenditure between 2017 and 2022.
Secondly, the management of Plateau State Basic Education Board has been invited to the EFCC to clarify issues of tech fund projects between 2015 and 2022.
“Officials of government from the Ministry of Agriculture have been invited to the EFCC to clarify on issues of some 400 tractors that could not be accounted for.
“The general manager of the Tourism Corporation has visited EFCC on issue of debt for 2022.
“Now, of all this, the period under investigation, none of it crossed into 2023. So, all issues that government officials have been invited to speak on are issues that concern the previous administration.
“And because government is a continuum, they must invite government officials now to clarify. When it gets to where individuals will go after investigation. Then we will know who will be the visitor to the EFCC.
Secondly, he talked about some relations or friends of governor. I have challenged him to name one single individual, that has been invited or has visited EFCC on invitation that is related to the governor.
“If he is talking about members of the state assembly that have visited the EFCC on the issues of their official vehicles, at the time these members were given official vehicles, they were legitimate, democratically elected members of the house of assembly who by law were entitled to those vehicles.
“So EFCC is saying, now your tenure was truncated and therefore you are supposed to have returned the vehicles and if you cannot return it, bring the value of the vehicle. If you cannot bring it, now, now, now, we will keep you here.
That explains why the members were kept there for one week.”
Mwansat said that even though governor don’t try to justify corruption or shield corrupt people, because of the Plateau value, he had vowed not to probe his predecessor because all governors after him had been ridiculed in your guise of fighting corruption.
He said, “Because of the values he cherished and the Plateau spirit, the governor had he asked the question. All our leaders preceding him that have become governors have been ridiculed in the eye of the public, they have been destroyed under the guise of fighting corruption.
“And he said this cycle of corruption, this cycle of witch hunting must stop. And because of that, he never took any petition to anybody.”
