Yakubu Busari
A Plateau state group under aegis of pressure group has called on Governor Simon Lalong to fast track the arrest of state treasury looters by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to redeem his electioneering campaign promises to the state.
The group in their press statement over the weekend in Jos said, Governor Lalong should recover the alleged looted funds of the State and for the EFCC to carry out its statutory function(s).
The Concerned Patriots and the Peoples Rights Group among other smaller groups, who are concerned about the state and the need for the state Governor, Rt. Hon. Simon Lalong, to fulfill his electoral promise(s), especially, recovering the state’s alleged looted fund, said; “You would recall that the Plateau state Governor during his inaugural speech in 2015, had promised the people of the state that, the first thing he is going to do as governor is to recover these alleged looted funds of the state”.
As a step, the Governor wrote the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and for months he did not get their response nor did they swing into action as expected by the Governor.
Under a frustrated state, the Governor opened up to the people of the state on the alleged poor attitude of the EFCC, towards the Plateau state’s petition(s) before the Commission concerning the need for them to intervene for the state to recover the alleged looted funds.
As a second step, the Governor had set-up a Judicial Commission of Inquiry (JCI) to look into the contractual dealings of the administration of the immediate past administration in the state led by Sen. Jonah David Jang, then, as Governor of the state.
The major pressure explain that any time from now would be for Governor lalong to publish the Whitepaper on the findings of the JCI and Government’s decision on the JCI’s recommendations.
“We are going to course a rally to pressure the Governor to publish the findings and the actions and decision of his administration on the recommendations of the JCI towards the recovering of Plateau looted funds.
“We will also take our protest to the door step of the EFCC to pressure them to take action on the petitions before them relating to Plateau state and its looted funds.
“We expected them to have named and shamed those involved before now. But since they have not told us as people of Plateau state, we will course them to take steps or drag them to Court in order to get an order to force them to do their statutory function(s).” The merging group have stated in their statement.
They, however recall that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), had slammed a two count charge on Hon. Sarah Ochekpe (Former Min. of water Resources), Hon. Raymond Dabo (former Plateau State PDP Deputy Chairman) and one Mr. Leo Jatau, for alleged Money Laundering amounting to about N450 million and has arraigned the suspects before a Federal High Court (FHC) sitting in Jos, the Plateau state capital.
More also the EFCC has already brought a case against Mrs. Ochekpe in Gombe state over account of her stewardship, as a Minister of Water Resources
