From Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom has advised the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) not to be selective in its fight against corruption as it is currently doing.
Governor Ortom gave the advice when he played host to a delegation of the Executive Intelligence Management Course 15 participants from the National Institute for Security Studies, Abuja on study tour in the State of Friday.
Ortom who regretted the action of the EFCC to freeze the account of the Benue State Emergency Management Agency, (SEMA) meant to take care of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs in the State, questioned the rationale behind the action of the anti-graft agency.
The Governor who posited that the anti corruption agency has exhibited the height of impunity by its selective war against financial crimes in the country stressed that the funds in the said SEMA account were donations from individuals and corporate organizations who were deeply concerned about the plight of the IDPs.
He maintained that a situation where the EFCC harasses innocent citizens on politically motivated grounds is unacceptable, just as he urged the EFCC to beam its searchlight on corrupt serving officials in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari who have turned the purchase of presidential nomination forms of the APC for the forthcoming general elections into a bazaar.
The Governor also called on the Federal Government to rise to its constitutional responsibility to secure the lives and property of Nigerians, pointing out that if the country must develop economically, security is paramount.
He applauded the participants for choosing Benue State as part of their study tour and enjoined them to take the study seriously and proffer practical solutions to solving the insecurity that has bedeviled the nation.
Earlier in a remark, leader of the delegation and a directing staff of NISS, Godwin Ometu told the Governor that the course was a flagship programme of NISS and the syndicate 2 was in Benue State to enable participants obtain first-hand information concerning governance, development and security situation.
Ometu further explained that the course with the theme “Global Climate Challenge; Prospects and Priorities for Economic Development” was aimed at fostering interagency synergy and impacting the participants to tackle insecurity challenges.
While noting that the course participants were drawn from various security formations within and outside Nigeria, Ometu stated that as part of course requirements, the participants, would at the end of the programme, submit recommendations and implementation strategies to the Federal Government even as he requested the Benue State Government to key into the programme.
