The first Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the Bola Ahmed Tinubu government, Mr. Ola Olukoyede, is full of unbridled exuberance. Hence, in the case between the anti -graft agency and former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, Olukoyede appears to be blowing hot unnecessarily, as well as playing to gallery in order to win public acceptance.
But the hotter he blows in the Bello case, the more trust he is losing with the public he is seeking its support and acceptance. This is because in Nigeria’s gutter parlance, people would ask the likes of Olukoyede one funny question: “Na today?”
Olukoyede sold himself out on Tuesday, April 23, 2024 during his media briefing in Abuja when he exuberantly revealed that he breached official protocol and personally invited Bello to come to have meeting with him in his office in Abuja. What kind of meeting would that be?
Olukoyede: “I personally invited Bello for interview in my office but he refused and asked us to come to his village to talk to him”.
Doesn’t the EFCC have a formal way of inviting suspects to its office? Does Olukoyede invite all EFCC suspects personally or does he select only the big fishes that can kick the ball?
When Bello failed to honour an “informal” invitation, Olukoyede got indignant and went for the kill in a gestapo style. What a shame?
Now the EFCC Chairman, in giving Bello media trial, had turned himself into the accuser, the prosecutor and the jury. He revealed how Bello used a cousin to move $751,000 to a BDC to pay his child’s school fees.
If you have such alleged fraud established, why not keep it for the court? Why revealing it to the public? Such revelation has armed the lawyers of Bello with how to defend their client against such allegation. Graft war is not fought in the pages of newspapers or on the screen of the television. Let Olukoyede be careful with his style which is not winning him public goodwill.
