By Davidson Iriekpen
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Youths Frontier has slammed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for inviting Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) officials to explain how N10billion was allegedly diverted.
The National Coordinator of the group, Austin Okai, said in a statement yesterday that only the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had the legal right to probe a political party’s finances.
The statement read in part, “It is the only INEC (the electoral umpire) and main supervisory organ of political parties in the country that can carry out any investigation into any party’s financial activities, not the EFCC.”
The group said the federal government had devised a plan to clamp down on PDP members.
“This, as far as we are concerned, is the party’s internal affair. The jurisdiction of the EFCC does not extend to investigating internal party wrangling. The EFCC is therefore acting outside its powers by inviting the above named persons,” it said.
“One of the points raised by the EFCC is that they want to verify the proceeds from the sale of forms. It is unheard of and laughable that the EFCC seeks to turn itself into the de facto auditor of the PDP,” the statement further read.
The group argued that it was obvious that the EFCC had lost focus.
