The senator representing Imo west, Imo state, South East Nigeria, Rochas Okorocha says President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to look into the criminal charges against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Gatekeepers News reports that Okorocha said this while addressing state house correspondents after visiting Buhari on Thursday.
The commission had, on Monday, filed a 17-count charge against the former Imo governor before a federal high court in Abuja.
The charge against Okorocha came scarcely 12-hours after he formally declared his intention to run for president in 2023.
The EFCC said Okorocha allegedly conspired with others, including a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and five companies, to steal N2.9 billion public funds.
Okorocha said the charges by the commission are “trumped up to distract him”.
He added that a competent court has delivered a judgment restraining the EFCC from prosecuting him.
Okorocha also said he visited Buhari to ask for his intervention on the anti-graft agency’s planned prosecution, and to seek the immediate release of his international passport still being held by the EFCC.
Okorocha said, “The president said he would take up the matter, especially when he saw the judgment.
“He said, he’ll take up the matter and find out what is actually happening. And I hope he will do so. And I believe he will do that.
“One of the duties of a president is to protect the law of the land. And when an issue comes to an issue of judgment the duty is incumbent on the government of the day to ensure that justice is done.
“I came to demand justice that he should prevail and as the custodian, as the leader of our nation, he should be made to know that such is going on.
“I didn’t come here to say I don’t want to be investigated by the EFCC. That’s not the issue, that there’s a judgment on the ground.
“There’s judgment and there’s an order of court that I’m asking Mr President, who appointed the EFCC to recall that there was the law that established the EFCC. And if that law is good to make somebody EFCC, that law should be obeyed, too.”
