Buhari denies asking EFCC to drop charges against Akpabio once he joined APC

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has denied insinuations that he asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to stop investigating former Akwa Ibom State governor Senator Godswill Akpabio after he joined the All Progressives Congress (APC).

In August last year, Senator Akpabio left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), of which he has been a member since 1999 and joined the APC. Between 2007 and 2015, Senator Akpabio was the Akwa Ibom State governor and the EFCC have been investigating his tenure and it is believed that he decamped to avoid being prosecuted.

After leaving office in 2015, Senator Akpabio was accused of diverting over N100bn ($277m) from the oil-rich state, an allegation which he has denied. He has visited the EFCC several times to answer questions about what he did with the funds but so far, no formal charges have been brought against him.

PDP officials have accused President Buhari of double standards, saying that charges against senator Akpabio have been dropped just because he joined the APC. They claim it makes a mockery of President Buhari's fight against corruption, saying it is just a witch hunt against political opponents.

Describing such allegation as unfair, President Buhari denied he was protecting some corrupt persons in his government while those in the opposition were being hounded. He added that he did not instruct the EFCC to drop charges against Senator Akpabio as he had formed the habit of following due process.

President Buhari said, “I cannot remember asking the EFCC, the ICPC, the police or anybody to spare any corrupt person or incompetent person. I haven’t done it and I challenge you to expose any.”