Murtala Nyako Declared Wanted

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has declared the ousted Governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, wanted.

Investigations revealed that the leadership of the commission decided to declare Nyako wanted after he failed to honour the commission’s invitations after his removal from office.

PUNCH Newspaper gathered that Nyako has evaded arrest as operatives detailed to arrest him after his removal from office by the House of Assembly has not sighted him since then.

The Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, told the Newspaper in a telephone interview in Abuja, on Tuesday that the commission took the decision to declare Nyako wanted because he had been elusive.

“Since Nyako, was removed, he has been elusive. So the commission has devised a strategy to declare him wanted.

“The commission is planning to declare him wanted,” Uwujaren said.

In response, Nyako said he was not surprised neither was he disturbed about the decision to hound him because he would not be the first person to be so hounded by men in power.

He expressed confidence that posterity will judge his administration kindly.

Nyako, who spoke through his Director of Press and Public Affairs, Ahmad Sajoh, said this in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents in Abuja.

He said “They (the then government of the day) set up General Olusegun Obasanjo, accused him of a coup, jailed him unjustifiably and he later came out of prison to become President; they orchestrated the impeachment of Ayo Fayose, today they have returned him as governor elect.

“We have no fears. They harassed former Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido; today he is the Emir of Kano. So, if what they are doing has Allah’s support, he would not elevate the people being humiliated. There is judgment of history, there is judgment of God. Today they are at the helm of affairs; it does not mean they will be at the helm of affairs tomorrow. They should also await Allah’s judgment.”

In a related development, Nyako’s deputy, Mr. Bala Ngilari was grilled for about three hours by operatives of the EFCC at the headquarters of the commission on Tuesday.

The Deputy Governor arrived the commission at 10:00 am and was allowed to go after 1.00pm.

A highly placed source at the commission said, “The former deputy governor was here. He responded to our invitation, he interacted with operatives for some hours. He came around 10am and left 1pm.”

It was further gathered that the leadership of the commission had taken a decision to defreeze one of several accounts operated by the Adamawa State Government to enable the state pay outstanding salaries owed civil servants.

It was learnt that the commission had not lifted the freeze order on the other accounts because they were still being investigated.

“One of the state government accounts, the salary accounts, has been de-frozen.

“The other ones have not been lifted because they are part of the investigation. This one was released so that the government could pay salaries; you know you cannot cripple the business of government,” the source said.