A coalition of Civil Society Organisations under the aegis of Say No Campaign (SNC) has given the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) two weeks ultimatum to arrest the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, over the N255m cars purchased by the ministry or face litigation.
The SNC gave this ultimatum at a press briefing on Friday January 24th 2014 in Abuja convened by Auwal Rafsanjani, Ezenwa Nwagwu, Samson Itodo and Jaye Gaskia.
The SNC also faulted the 2014 budget estimate stating that the government was yet to acknowledge its primary duty of providing for the welfare and security of the citizens.
The group stated that the EFCC should arrest and prosecute Oduah by virtue of Section 7 (1) of its establishment Act which empowers the commission to commence investigation as to whether any person, corporate body or organisation has committed any offence under the Act or other law relating to economic and financial crimes.
The coalition said:
The recent corruption allegation against the Minister of Aviation for the illegal purchase of two Armoured BMW cars at the outrageous price of N255 million generated citizens’ uproar and received popular condemnation from different stakeholders in the polity.
These condemnations are deemed to have occasioned the constitution of an investigative committee by President Good-luck Jonathan. Similarly, the House of Representatives responded by constituting its own committee to investigate the issue. The Reps Committee has subsequently released a report indicting Stella Oduah.
We demand that the EFCC should exercises its powers by conducting an investigation into the aforementioned issue; the commission should further arrest the indicted Minister for Aviation for prosecution in a court of competent jurisdiction.
Should the EFCC refrain from taking the appropriate and required action; the Say No Campaign will not hesitate to institute a legal action against the Commission within 14 days.
