C’River Group Blames Oyo-Ita, Obono-Obla’s Travails on Pro-corruption Forces

A group operating on the platform of Concerned Cross Riverians have risen in defence of the Head of Service of the Federal (HoSF), Mrs. Winifred Eyo-Ita, and the Chairman, Special Presidential Investigation Panel on Recovery of Public Assets (SPIP), Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, saying they are being persecuted, and investigated on trumped up charges.

The group alleged that the seemingly spontaneity with which both of them are being investigated indicated that there are people working assiduously to bring them down.

The group, in a statement by its Leader, Mr. Williams Eko, made available to journalists on Sunday in Calabar, said “It is a clear case of giving a dog a bad name so as to hang it.” Eko expressed surprise over how N600 million found in the account of a Project Accountant who is already undergoing investigation could be linked to Oyo-Ita.

The group said: “the project account is a Level 12 officer, and reports to the Director Finance and Administration, who reports to the Permanent Secretary, who reports to the HoSF. Where is the conspiracy theory coming from and who are the co-conspirators?”

“It is alleged that she embezzled N3 billion whereas N3 billion was the total annual budget for the Ministry of Special Duties. So, the Estacode/duty tour allowance certainly could not have taken up the whole budget of N3 billion. Didn’t the Ministry have recurrent expenditure, staff training, capital expenditure etc to attend to? So, there’s nothing like N3 billion fraud except that some powerful cabal are not happy with her...

“We know very ready, able and willing allies of the Chief of Staff are ranking Federal Permanent Secretaries eyeing the HoSF seat as replacement. She is 55 and has five more years to retirement, for goodness sake.”

The group challenged the cabal to show any property anywhere in Abuja the EFCC pasted their notice, and sealed that belongs to Oyo-Ita presumably in the last three years except that some people just want to criminalise her.

Commenting on the suspension and investigation of ObonoObla, the group said President Muhammadu Buhari should step in immediately otherwise some powerful people in the presidency, and their cohorts who are allegedly behind everything would cover up the gracious cases of corruption Obla’s committee was working to unveil.