Agbele Arrest: I did not receive money from NSA, Fayose insists

Following the arrest of Governor Ayodele Fayose’s aide, Abiodun Agbele by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ekiti State Governor yesterday insisted that he did not receive money from the office of National security Adviser for his electioneering campaign.

The governor maintained that the 2014 election which he won under the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was sponsored by Zenith Bank, whom he claimed has not denied doing so.

It would be recalled that The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had on Monday arrested Agbele for allegedly collaborating with Fayose to receive N1.219bn from the office of the Defense Minister, Musiliu Obanikoro during the State governorship election in 2014.

Fayose, reacting to the arrest in a statement on Tuesday morning, asked the anti-graft agency to carry out its investigation on the matter.

The statement reads, “Our attention has been drawn to the arrest of Mr Abiodun Agbele by the EFCC and we wish to say that we encourage the EFCC to carry out its investigations without politics as it is being done now.

“It must be pointed out that at no time was Mr Abiodun Agbele invited by the EFCC, and if he had been invited, he would have honoured the invitation.

“Therefore, there is nothing to celebrate in his arrest if it is not political.”

“As already pointed out, Governor Ayodele Fayose does not have anything to do with any fund from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).

“He has stated how his election was funded and Zenith Bank that he said funded his election has not denied doing so.

“Also, the person said to have been arrested is an adult and will defend himself when the time comes. Subjecting him to media trial as EFCC has been doing since the inception of this government will only give our adversaries momentary sense of joy.

“We await reports of EFCC investigations and we hope that the anti-corruption agency will be civil enough to allow an open and transparent trial in competent court of law and not media trial just to get at Governor Fayose because of his uncompromising stance against the misrule of the APC/Buhari led federal government.

“Whatever stories being circulated by the EFCC and its political allies can at best be regarded as rumour as we were all in Nigeria when Nigerians were told that $700m cash was found in the House of Mrs Diezani Allison Madueke and the story turned out to be lie.

“Finally, like we have maintained, Governor Fayose will remain resolute in making his opinions known on national issues and will not be intimidated,” the governor maintained.