Kogiflame
By Our reporter
Barr Halima Alfa Gaya was a former Commissioner in Kogi under the administration of the former governor, late Prince Abubakar Audu, also a member of Board of Trustees of Arewa Consultative Forum, and a Consultant to the Senate on Constitution Amendments.
In this interview, she spoke about on the recent attempt to forcefully arrest a former governor of Kogi state by the EFCC
INTERVIEW: We have not heard much from you after the successful transition in your state. What is really happening?.
BARR.HALIMA: I decided to have a good rest after the campaigns for the retention of the governorship seat by my party, the APC. We are very grateful to the almighty Allah for the victory and his decision to give power to whom he pleases at this time in the history of the state, Alhaji Usman Ahmed Ododo. I can confidently say that our state is in good hands going forward.
INTERVIEW: A lot they say transpired doing the last election that really affected the peace and tranquility of the state. As an elder in the state I want to ask you what you are doing to bring the people together?.
BARR.HALIMA: That is a very important question my brother. They say, after the hurricane metaphor comes calmness. The last election in the state have different meanings to different people and groups.
Some see it as an avenue to express the superiority of their ethnic , tribal and even religious leanings but other also see it as an avenue to express that our people irrespective of their diversity when it comes to tribe and religious background are all one people.
To me, the elections are over and their is no vanquished as we are all Kogities and must now rally our people behind the victorious governor because power comes from God alone and he gives it to who he pleases.
We as elders since the election have been doing our best both in private and the public to see that our people give peace a chance. We shall outlast our enemies who see elections as an avenue to fan the embers of hatred along ethnic and tribal lines to destabilize our people.
INTERVIEW: Your former governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello is currently in the eye of the storm. The EFCC. has declared him wanted for alledgedly laundering a whopping sum of N80.2billion naira. Are you surprised?.
BARR.HALIMA: If you say surprised to me it is understatement. I know it would get to this because the excellent performances of Yahaya Adoza Bello as governor of the state and his intimidating political credentials going forward I know would be of utmost concern to some powers that be who would stop at nothing to bring him down. Is it a crime for a young man to excel in his political life in this country?.
Yahaya Adoza Bello has been an inspiring leader to everyone in Kogi state because of the new direction he gave to the state.
His successes in the government house is intimidating to the political hawks of the state and posterity would not forgive them if they do not desist in going forward with this unpopular actions of theirs against the best leader yet the state has ever produce in person of Yahaya Adoza Bello.
We are with him because we know that the world especially Nigeria’s political atmosphere is more familiar with pain than with compassion. Yahaya Bello is more intensely compassionate in his political life that we are well assure that he would outlast his present circumstances because his hands are clean.
INTERVIEW: Can you on good authority explain to the general public the genesis of his problems with the powers that be?.
BARR.HALIMA: The economic and financial crime commission, EFCC was established to look into economic crimes and other offences of likes as stipulated in it’s enabling acts and I believe that nobody is above the law when it comes to the issues of economic crimes in the country. Our grudge with the EFCC. is centred only on it’s modus operandi. We are all Nigerians and the commission must be seen as rising always above any political considerations in carrying out it’s mandates.
The EFCC. had gone public with some series of unsubstantiated allegations against Yahaya Adoza Bello and surprised with the content of the allegations placed in the public domain, he decided to go to court and seek some reliefs as it has got to do with his fundamental human right and his dignity as a person for the interpretations of the contents of the allegations against him and he got some reliefs.
The court of competent jurisdiction in it’s wisdom granted him some reliefs by ordering the EFCC. to stop his arrest till the conclusion of the case instituted by the former governor is done with but In a gestapo manner, the EFCC. went ahead declaring him wanted by it’s false charge which Yahaya Adoza Bello went to court seeking interpretation. To my understanding, the EFCC. is not excluded from obeying courts orders as it is not above the law.
INTERVIEW: What really is the charges against the former governor by the EFCC.?.
BARR.HALIMA: I want the whole world to bear me witness by coming to a basic understanding of the present workings of the EFCC. using the present case of Yahaya Adoza Bello to peer review other pending cases against other public officials by the EFCC and with that form an independent opinion going forward of all citizens joining in advocacy for the present democratic authorities in the country to urgently reform the commission inorder for it to become a strong institutions following due processes in it’s efforts to fight corruption holistically.
The EFCC accused the former governor of laundering the sum of N80 Billion by September, 2015 when it is known to all that he did not resume duties as governor till January 20,2016. Where did he for God sake got that kind of money just some months into his administration of Kogi state to launder?.
This case is not for him as the charges even from abinitio is already dead on arrival. The commission is to my mind just doing the bidding of some unknown political godfather’s using the commission to blackmail, intimidate,and embarrass Yahaya Adoza Bello . I want to categorically state that the founders of the EFCC. never intended that it should be a weapon in the hands of anybody no matter how big to embarrass or intimidate anyone to submission.
INTERVIEW: Hearing this from you is surprising because of the fact that you are a lawyer yourself. Are you saying that Yahaya Adoza Bello you know did not laundered N80 Billion from the coffers of Kogi state?.
BARR.ALFA: I want to tell you clearly that I did not believe he did what the EFCC. is accusing him of doing because I am from Kogi state and I know that by September 2015, Kogi state do not have the sum of 80.2 billion naira anywhere for a new governor to launder. Our monthly allocations was not more than 3 billion naira before the exit of Idris Wada as governor and that contributed to the lack of capacity by the state to pay it’s workers.
When Yahaya Adoza Bello became the governor, the federal government was giving monies to state governors for payments of salaries and other state infrastructural developments and Kogi state was denied that privilege and it is in the public domain and then now you are persecuting a man for stealing and laundering that homongous sums of money when he has not even resumed as governor?.
I am a lawyer of many years standing and armed with a PHD in law, I think it would be foolish on my part to believe the EFCC. What they are doing today is persecuting to intimidate Yahaya Adoza Bello to submission in order to achieve a motive only known to them. Looking for him in a gestapo manner,blackmailing him in the pages of newspapers or even using the military who have never been used for a little assignment of this nature is just not going to work because the judiciary has shown severally that it is the hope of the common man.
The EFCC. had failed to prosecute people like Abubakar Yari,a former governor of Zamfara state, the present Minister of state for defence Maitawale and even a former governor of River state, Dr.Peter Odili, all whose alledged loot by the EFCC are more than that of Yahaya Bello.
Have you ever heard that they were made to undergo the type of persecution our former governor is going through?.He who comes to equity must come with a clean hands.
INTERVIEW: What is your final view on the present predicament of Yahaya Adoza Bello with the EFCC?.
BARR.HALIMA: What he is going through right now is totally a charade and a commission playing to the gallery should not be taking seriously. Technical and legally in it’s present case against Yahaya Adoza Bello the EFCC has thrown a knockout blow on itself because the content of the case they politically wrote against him shows the commission as in many cases has not woken up from it’s slumber by doing deligent investigation before rushing to seek to get a prosecution done. We are watching and we know Yahaya Adoza Bello is innocent.
