Gov Ortom Charges EFCC To Investigate Incomes Of APC Presidential Aspirants

Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom, Friday, challenged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to come clean in its fight against corruption.

Governor Ortom said this when he received a delegation of the Executive Intelligence Management Course 15 participants from the National Institute for Security Studies, Abuja, on a study tour in the state.

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He expressed displeasure over the action of the EFCC to freeze the account of the Benue State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, meant to take care of the internally displaced persons in the state.

He said the funds in the account were donations from individuals and corporate organizations who were concerned about the plight of the IDPs.

Ortom said the anti-corruption agency exhibited the height of impunity by its selective war against financial crimes in the country, saying ‘a situation where the EFCC harasses innocent citizens on politically motivated grounds is unacceptable’.

He tasked the EFCC to beam its searchlight on serving officials in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari who ‘have turned the purchase of presidential nomination forms of the APC for the forthcoming general elections into a bazaar’.

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Governor Ortom also called on the federal government to rise to its constitutional responsibility to secure the lives and property of Nigerians, pointing out that if the country must develop economically, ‘security is paramount’.

He commended the participants for choosing Benue State as part of their study tour and urged them to take the study seriously and proffer solutions to solving the insecurity bedevilling the nation.

The leader of the delegation, Godwin Ometu, told the governor that the course was a flagship programme of NISS to enable participants to ‘obtain first-hand information concerning governance, development and security situation’.

He said the course with the theme “Global Climate Challenge; Prospects and Priorities for Economic Development”, was aimed at fostering synergy and impacting the participants to tackle insecurity challenges.

According to him, the participants, at the end of the programme, would submit recommendations and implementation strategies to the federal government.

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He requested the Benue State government to key into the programme.

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