Lere Olayinka

By Olamide Akanji

Seeing Lere Olayinka writing about “EFCC and the Demon of Corruption”, it was obvious that the menace of corruption was fighting back. The Coalition of Corrupt Nigerians Against  EFCC  has never relented; its pushback has even, at the moment, reached an ugly crescendo.

To be sure, Lere Olayinka is ex-Governor Ayo Fayose’s media aide. He is as controversial as his boss. It is common knowledge that Fayose is being tried by the law court in a suit brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for N6.9 billion.

So, when out of the myriads of issues confronting us as a people, Lere Olayinka chose to condemn the EFCC and its leadership over their handling of the ex-Governor Yahaya Bello’s corruption case, one needs no soothsayer to understand that what is playing out is the manifestation of corruption fighting back. It is either because the EFCC is trying both his principal and Bello, or he has also been contracted by Bello’s handlers to do the hatchet job. Yahaya Bello’s purse is, perhaps, the biggest crisis management account at the moment.

With what is playing out, it is clear that it is a coalition of corrupt Nigerians fighting against the EFCC.

Otherwise, how would anyone vilify the EFCC and its leadership for seeking to invite Bello for questioning? Can any court worth the name restrain the statutory Commission from inviting anyone for questioning? Certainly, no!

How come Lere Olayinka and his ilk fail to see the abnormalities in Bello’s refusal to honour a simple invitation and the resort to needless judicial acrobatics and arm-twisting?

They would rather choose to pilloried the EFCC for its efforts in seeking to hold politically exposed persons to account. If not that Bello has something to hide, why would he not just honour EFCC’s invitation and have his day in court?

It is even all the more ironic when Lere Olayinka’s boss, Fayose, took the bold and commendable step to go to the EFCC’s office of his own volition when he left office as Governor of Ekiti State.

Perhaps, if Fayose had listened to someone like Lere Olayinka, he would have advised him to toe the Yahaya Bello’s ignoble route! What a shame for a so-called white lion!

Instead of playing the ostrich and hiring all manner of mercenaries to canvass all sorts of illogicalities and absurdities, Yahaya Bello should be man enough to honour EFCC’s invitation and ultimately have his day in court to prove his innocence. What is more, the offences for which he is to be charged are bailable.

Yahaya Bello and his hack writers should just stop this show of shame; motion without movement.

Enough said!