Edo speaker, two other lawmakers regain freedom from EFCC

The Benin airport was agog yester­day as thousands of supporters of the All progressives Con­gress (APC) thronged the airport to receive three principal officers of the state house of assembly who were detained in Abuja since Wednesday by the Economic and Fi­nancial Crimes Commis­sion (EFCC) over allega­tions of forgery.

Those detained were the Speaker Uyi Igbe, Major­ity Leader, Philip Shaibu and Majority Whip, Folly Ogedengbe.
As the trio regained their freedom, the Edo State Po­lice Command announced yesterday that it has ar­raigned 22 persons suspect­ed to have participated in the attack on the legislative quarters last Saturday that left scores injured and over 30 vehicles, and properties destroyed.
Addressing journalists at the airport on arrival from Abuja, Igbe said they were invited to Abuja expecting that they were accused of financial misappropriation but that they were shocked that they were accused of forgery of a signature to impeach former Deputy Speaker, Festus Ebea.
“Last week we were in­vited by the EFCC and they claimed that they were doing some investigations and that we will be able to contribute to it. So we went there on Tuesday. On Wednesday we went to the EFCC office. And I was of the impres­sion that the EFCC means Financial Crimes Commis­sion, and therefore I was under the impression that they were going to investi­gate financial mis-appropri­ation only for us to get there and issues that concern the House of Assembly was what they brought up.
“What they were tell­ing us was that somebody alleged that we forged the signature amongst the sig­natures that we used to im­peach the former Deputy Speaker Festus Ebea. And therefore that was the reason they invited us. I was taken completely aback. But then again I am not too surprised because we all know that this is the systematic way that they use to harass and intimidate us.
“But I want them to know that this is only going to make us stronger, we will remain focused, we will keep our eye on the ball and eventually we will score the goal, we will not shake, we will not be intimidated, we refused to be intimidated, we are back to the state.
“We cannot be intimi­dated by EFCC, we cannot be intimidated even by the President or the PDP. As far as I am concerned, Ni­geria remain one, Nigeria will grow from strength to strength and no body can derail the destiny of this country. And we are ready to fight intellectually. We will not arm our youths but the power of the tongue we shall use to defeat them.
“Never again will Edo state go back to the years of under development, never again will this country get leaders that are clueless about the issues of Nigeria. We are determined to fight for the destiny of our chil­dren.”