Senator Samuel Anyanwu has condemned the arrest of Innoson Motors boss, Innocent Chukwuma by officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Anyanwu stated this while contributing to a point of order raised by the deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu on the matter on Wednesday, December 20, 2017.
He said the acting EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Magu was rejected twice by the Senate thus should have been relieved of his duty by the President.
He expressed displeasure over the recent activities of the EFCC under Magu’s watch.
“I want to ask a question,” The Imo lawmaker began.
“EFCC as its stand today, does it have a chairman? Because I knew in this chamber, the head of EFCC was rejected during screening because of poor performance and yet he has been there as chairman.
“There was a businessman from Imo state that was killed in EFCC custody. The body is still in the mortuary till today. These are the kind of things we are seeing in this country; why must we allow it to continue?
“We have been talking about promoting made in Nigeria goods. This man manufactures vehicles, he has over 5, 000 people in his employment, he has international partners. What are you projecting before them? That he is a criminal? If we as Senate allow this to continue, there is nothing else that will ever work.
“We rejected somebody here, yet he is allowed. Are there no other Nigerians who are credible to fight corruption? Every small thing, EFCC. Tomorrow, if a wife refuses to give his man $3x, they will go and call EFCC. It will get to that point,” he added.
Similarly, Senator Bwacha Emmanuel representing Taraba state condemned the alleged snooping of wife Innoson boss by the EFCC.
“As a member of this Senate, I sponsor a motion for the to call for support of the anti-corruption war but as I listen to this story. If truly the wife of Innocent Chukwuma was snooped by a member of EFCC, something has to be done. Somebody must be held responsible; somebody must lose his job. Otherwise, we’ll be wasting our time here,” the lawmaker said.
In his remarks, Senate President Bukola Saraki described the situation as a case of “mockery”.
“As a society that we are all planning that our country to be civilized, I think this does not speak well of the country. How a private commercial transaction has now become the focus of the EFCC.
“I think this area is the focus. Whether he is owing or not, I think we must be seen protecting the fundamental rights of. I’ve never seen when FBI interferes between City Bank and Ford Motors, or the financial crime agency in UK intervenes. We are just making a mockery of ourselves and we really should be able to do the right thing,” he added.
The matter was referred to the committee on anti-corruption and financial crimes to investigate the matter and report back in 24 hours.
