President Muhammadu Buhari will Tuesday May 10, 2016 travel to London to participate in the international Anti-Corruption Summit which will be held in the British capital on Thursday, May 12, 2016. President Buhari will play a prominent part in the summit which will be hosted by Prime Minister David Cameron with many other Heads of State and Government in attendance.
Presidency sources said President Buhari will, ahead of the summit, deliver a keynote titled: “Why We Must Tackle Corruption Together” at a pre-summit conference of development partners, the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, Transparency International and other civil society groups on Wednesday, May 11, 2016.
Other speakers at the opening session of the Anti-Corruption Summit include Prime Minister Cameron and the President of the World Bank, Dr. Jim Yong Kim.
Meantime, Mr Ayodele Fayose, Governor of Ekiti State has frowned at the persistent harassment of Nigerians by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), describing the continued detention without trial of Mr. Warimopei Dudafa, a former Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan and invasion of the Abuja residence of former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode as irresponsible, barbaric and undemocratic.
Governor Fayose said it was the height of executive rascality for the EFCC to have held occupants of Fani-Kayode’s residence hostage for eight hours despite that he was only invited to come to the EFCC office on Monday and there was no evidence that Fani-Kayode refused to honour the EFCC invitation.
According to the governor’s Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, “EFCC under President Mohammadu Buhari is acting as if it is above the law and Nigerians and the international community must remind the commission that we are in a democracy where rule of law is sacrosanct.
“The EFCC must be reminded of the judgment delivered in March, this year by Justice Yusuf Haliru of the Federal High Court in Nicholas Arinze Vs EFCC & Nigerian Army where the judge held that the EFCC did not behave as if we were in a civilised society and that the anti-graft commission was behaving as if we were in a military dictatorship, where they arrest and release person at will.
“In the case of the former Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs to ex-President Jonathan, no one is saying those suspected of corrupt practices should not be investigated and tried, but it is wrong for Warimopei Dudafa to have been kept in EFCC custody for over two weeks without trial.
“Also, it is a demonstration of barbarism for the same EFCC that invited Fani-Kayode to its office on Monday to have invaded his house yesterday, holding the occupants hostage for eight hours when there is no evidence that Fani-Kayode refused to honour EFCC invitation.
“Why the show of barbarism by the EFCC as if Nigeria is now back to 1984 when Buhari was a military dictator?”
While calling on the international community to pay attention to the abuse of rights of Nigerians and threat to democracy under President Buhari, Fayose said; “It is obvious that democracy in Nigeria is becoming unsafe in the hands of Buhari’s government.”
He said Nigerians must begin to ask the EFCC what happened to the several petitions written against APC leaders and financiers of President Buhari’s election, including former governors, adding that it was worrisome that the EFCC and the Department of State Services (DSS) have become President Buhari’s instrument of political victimisation.
