Nigeria: EFCC Blocks Ex-Gov's $5m Account. This Day news paper report (Lagos)

Dear Forum, Nigeria: EFCC Blocks Ex-Gov's $5m Account. This Day news paper report (Lagos)The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Commission, (EFCC), Nuhu Rib-abdu has disclosed that the Commission has received information to block the account of a former governor who is also standing for an election to return to his state government house. The account, according to EFCC contains $5 million. However, the name of the said former governor was not disclosed.Ribadu disclosed this at the pre-convention lecture of the University of Abuja . "The case is in court and that is why I will not mention name. The reason why I mention this is to show you what our elites are doing to our economy. This latest development is on our request. We identify such monies all over the world and make the request and freeze them after getting restraining order against such monies. When the whole process is complete then the monies will be returned to Nigeria," he said.While fielding questions from newsmen, Ribadu said recovered money had been returned to the nation's treasury. "Of course recovered monies goes back to where it was stolen from," he said.On the accusation of selective justice, the EFCC boss said, "suddenly there are cries and screams of "selective justice", of Gestapo tactics and of all sorts of diversionary propaganda. Fundamentally, their claims are overly hysterical. For instance, those who advance the argument of selective justice have helped their audience understand how selective justice amounts to an act of injustice; how can the nation of selectivity be valid in a vast canvas of crime from which you pick prime targets that will convey symbolic lesions? The operational philosophy of the EFCC has always been rimed to pick on selective targets in the bid to obtain maximum impact."To be able to do this with a sense of fairness and justice, the reality of life itself imposes a central challenge of selection. It cannot be otherwise because the opposite of this will be to be indiscriminate and random, which in itself amounts to a bizarre approach to law enforcement," he said.Ribadu said those who were accusing EFCC of targeting those in the opposition political parties should recognise that the Commission had not gone after ANPP Presidential candidate Gen. Muha-mmadu Buhari or the former Chairman of PDP, Chief Sunday Awoniyi.Also to butterace the fact that the EFCC was not against people in opposition parties, he said "the ruling party which our mischievous critics claim we protect has been disproportionately at the receiving end of our work including those that are closest to the highest political authorities in this land."He however said they were aware of those in genuine opposition. Ribadu said that it took the establishment of EFCC to give hope and succour to defenceless Nigerians in the country where the criminal justice system had broken down.He said that he could confidently say that the EFCC Act, ICPC Act and the Anti-Money Laun-dering Act had brought innovations in the fight against corruption in the country.Relevant Links West Africa Nigeria Economy, Business and Finance Legal and Judicial Affairs He noted that the laws had made it possible to trail and follow all illicit wealth saying that no such wealth could be hidden again anywhere in the world."It could be traced and recovered and EFCC has the capacity and is in a position to trace all financial transactions locally and internationally".Ribadu warned that it was fruitless for any Nigerian to attempt to hide wealth any where especially when the EFCC international networks were also far reaching.from Copyright © 2007 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). Click here to contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material.

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