The Akwa-Ibom State Government has sued the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC to court over the freezing of the state account by the anti-graft agency.
The government of Akwa-Ibom slammed a N50 billion law suit against the agency for what it termed unlawful freezing of its account.
The information was revealed to newsmen by the Akwa-Ibom State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Barr. Uwemedimo Nwoko during an interview on Friday at the Government House grounds Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State.
According to the state Attorney General other defendants named in the suit include; the Attorney General of the Federation, Zenith Bank PLC, Skye Bank PLC as well as the United Bank for Africa PLC.
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The Attorney general told newsmen that the EFCC possessed no constitutional powers to freeze the state government’s account.
“There is no basis even in the constitution of Nigeria or any other enabling law made by anybody whether the National Assembly or the state Assembly or any other convention that authorizes any federal agency or any agency to shut down the account of a state government as done by the EFCC,” he said.
”I want to state clearly that even if there were to be an investigation that the EFCC was carrying out about whether there was any fraud committed against Akwa Ibom state in that circumstance, it should be the government of Akwa Ibom that should be the victim, so there was no basis for freezing the account they claimed that they were investigating a fraud against that state government.” He continued further.
The Attorney general however declined to comment when he was asked if the freezing of the state account had any political undertone. He said he would rather prefer to pursue the matter legally and to a logical conclusion.
He further said the freezing of Akwa-Ibom state government account has stalled Economic, security and business operations in the state.
He also added that several prospective investors had developed cold feet due to the illegal action of the EFCC which has translated into massive loss of potential revenue for the Akwa-Ibom state government.
”The singular attempt of freezing the account of the state government was shutting down the state. Akwa Ibom state was brought down on its knees, it was an attempt to paralyze and completely demobilize the activity of the state.
We could not respond to economic, security and business exigencies. Most importantly, the investors that were coming to Akwa Ibom began to have a second thought and became worried about the status of their investment. Those who were on their way began to go back, so we suffered unquantifiable losses.” He further explained.
The Attorney general then called out the EFCC for lying to the country on the frozen status of the state account adding that there was irrefutable evidence that the account had been frozen by the Anti-graft agency contrary to what it would have the general public believe.