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Frank chides EFCC over arrest of Atiku’s lawyer

By Adamu Abuh, Abuja
20 February 2019   |   4:11 am
Former deputy national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timi Frank, has described the arrest of Mr. Uyiekpen Giwa-Osagie...

[FILES] The deputy national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timi Frank

Former deputy national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timi Frank, has described the arrest of Mr. Uyiekpen Giwa-Osagie, counsel to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, as politically-motivated.

Frank stated yesterday that the development was a clear proof that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was a tool in the hands of President Muhammadu Buhari to witch-hunt members of the opposition.

The Bayelsa State-born political activist said the arrest of Giwa-Osagie a few weeks after Tunde Ayeni, former chairman of Skye Bank (now Polaris Bank), was picked up and detained in similar fashion, showed APC’s desperation to starve the opposition of critical funding necessary for its campaign.

He called on the international community to list Ibrahim Magu among those to be placed on visa ban following his overt use of the EFCC to detain key opposition figures to dampen their chances in the coming elections, to the overall benefit of Buhari and the APC.

Frank said: “Magu cannot claim to be fighting corruption when the only people he finds to be allegedly engaged in fraudulent activities are key members of the opposition. This is a witch-hunt and highly selective.”

According to him, there is nowhere in the Electoral Act that opposition political parties are banned from funding their elections to prescribed limits.

His words: “However, the EFCC has continued to clamp down on legitimate businessmen with the belief that any money in their possession is meant for Atiku’s campaign.

“Today, the EFCC is clearly an arm of the APC. No thanks to Magu, who has officially pledged his support for Buhari by wearing his re-election campaign brooch on his suit lapel.”

“Magu is politically biased and the entire EFCC under his command is working for the re-election of Buhari and all APC’s candidates in the coming elections. If not, how can Magu claim to be fighting corruption by incessantly arresting opposition figures to the exclusion of members of the Buhari administration with corrupt baggage around their necks?

He called for the immediate release of all political prisoners detained by the EFCC like Giwa-Osagie, Ayeni and others before Saturday’s polls, while calling on Nigerians to resist the fascist inclination of Buhari and APC using Magu and the EFCC as tools.

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