Governor Willie Obiano has told the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that he was ready to give a scorecard of his eight years’ of administration at the end of his tenure on March 17, 2022.
Obiano also disclosed that he will relocate to the United States of America immediately after the completion of his tenure in 2022.
The EFCC has reportedly placed the governor on a watch list for probe.
The anti-graft agency had in a letter to the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, dated November 15, 2021, requested the service to place the governor on watchlist and inform it anytime he is travelling out of the country from any of the international airports and other points of entry and exit.
But in a press statement on Thursday signed by the Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Mr. C. Don Adinuba, the government said there was no doubt that the governor will leave the country after his tenure as he has always announced, but insisted that Governor Obiano was ready to account for his years in office.
“Governor Obiano is out of the country currently. And he travelled through one of the country’s international airports. He did not disguise himself, but rather left the country with his identity fully disclosed at the necessary immigration point.
“Chief Obiano has never left any persons in doubt that he will relocate to his base in the United States once he finishes his tenure. As early as Wednesday, March 4, 2020, he announced his decision to a meeting of the Anambra State Council of Elders,” the commissioner said.
He attributed the action of the commission as being engineered by the same people who wanted to impose a state of emergency on Anambra, saying that the move was in retaliation of the defeat of their ambition to take Anambra at all cost.
He said: “Nigerians were dismayed that the EFCC went to a new low on Wednesday, November 24, 2021, when it sponsored media reports claiming that it had placed Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State on its watch list.
“The EFCC provided no details of how Governor Obiano has been placed on its watch list, but made a reference to a letter it purportedly wrote on November 15, 2021, to the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) asking it to inform the anti-graft agency anytime the governor is travelling out of the country.
“Everything that can be wrong with politically motivated statements like this one is obviously wrong with this statement. The EFCC knows full well that it is acting inelegantly in this instance, and so has tried as much as possible not to make an official public statement on the alleged placing of Chief Obiano on the watch list. It furtively gave a section of the media the news report it wrote based on ostensibly its letter to the NIS on November 15.”
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