Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to pay more attention to crime prevention than engaging in media trials of alleged suspects.
He stated this on Thursday during the North-Central Zonal Public Hearing on review of the Revenue Allocation Formula (RAF) in Lokoja.
The governor urged the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to work closely with the EFCC in preventing financial mismanagement.
According to Bello, the issue of dwindling allocation to states would be addressed if the huge funds reportedly recovered by the EFCC are distributed and closely monitored to avoid any form of misappropriation.
“Often, states and local governments can do nothing more than look on, helpless, at the distressing frequency with which our media report the discovery of trillions of naira in distributable revenue.
“These are revenues which the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) or other revenue generators neglected, failed or refused to remit to the federation account as due.
“The RMAFC has a concomitant duty to prevent this from happening. It can easily do so in collaboration with sister federal agencies such as the EFCC,” he said.
On prevention of crimes he said, “I call on the general public to help inform the EFCC that Governor Yahaya Bello advises that preventing such larceny of our communal funds is actually a better use of her valuable resources and time.
“Rather than the recent dealing in innuendos about alleged lost or found funds in alleged secret accounts of the Kogi State Government, which neither I, as Chief Executive, nor my administration know anything about.
“We still challenge them, therefore, to clarify publicly to Nigerians if in all of their current hide-and-seek with one of the banks in this country they have discovered that even one kobo was misapplied or misappropriated.”