From Emmanuel Uzor, Abakaliki
THE speaker of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly Mr. Francis Nwifuru has dismissed as
rumour the report of his arrest by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Addressing journalists in his Abakaliki official residence, the Speaker who said he flew in to the country on Friday having been part of the delegation sent by Governor David Umahi to understudy the mechanized rice farming in China said he was invited by the anti graft agency, and therefore dismissed as unfounded, the reports making the round that he was picked by EFCC at the Enugu airport.
The speaker said he only honoured an invitation from the EFCC at its South-East zonal office in Enugu, adding that he was not arrested by the agency.
“I arrived Enugu from Abuja after attending an agricultural programme in China and decided to
honour the invitation which was brought to my office when I travelled” he said.
Nwifuru pointed out that he honoured the invitation to save himself the stress of travelling to Abakaliki and back to Enugu and even visited the Speaker of Enugu House Assembly who accompanied him to the EFCC office.
“I have never been to the EFCC office before as they asked me to explain what transpired with 2011,
2012, 2013 and 2014 constituency projects funds as the representative of Izzi West state constituency.”
I explained all I knew in not more than 30 minutes as this shows that I was neither arrested nor molested by the EFCC. I informed them that I was not the House speaker within those periods but knew that some funds were released for the projects by the former state governor, as the then speaker awarded contracts for the constituency projects through bidding processes,” he said.
The speaker explained further that the projects for his constituency was duly constituted and executed, as the only uncompleted one was a structure meant for the police which he said
had reached 80 per cent completion.
“The system of constituency project execution in Ebonyi is such that a succeeding tenure would not complete uncompleted projects, as the projects stop with the period of award. I believe the petition was politically motivated because it only involved nine members of the
previous assembly who were re-­elected and who did not support the
immediate past administration when its tenure was ending,” he said.
Nwifuru said he informed the commission that the House’s
Department for Planning, Research and Statistics (PRS) should be held accountable because it raised the Certificates of Completion to the contractors.
“On finishing my explanations, I was told to leave and I was actually arrested, I could have been bailed which was not the case,” he said.
The speaker explained further that the projects for his constituency was duly constituted and executed, as the only uncompleted one was a structure meant for the police which he said had reached 80 per cent completion.
“The system of constituency project execution in Ebonyi is such that a succeeding tenure would not complete uncompleted projects, as the projects stop with the period of award. I believe the petition was politically motivated because it only involved nine members of the previous assembly who were re-­elected and who did not support the immediate past administration when its tenure was ending,” he said.
Nwifuru said he informed the commission that the House’s Department for Planning, Research and Statistics (PRS) should be held accountable because it raised the Certificate of Completion to the contractors.
“On finishing my explanations, I was told to leave and if I was actually arrested, I could have been bailed which was not the case,”
he said.

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