I’m not on the run- Ex-Katsina state governor Ibrahim Shema declared wanted by the EFCC says

Former Katsina State governor Ibrahim Shema who was on Wednesday September 14th declared wanted by the EFCC has written a letter to the agency saying he is not on the run. The antigraft agency had declared him wanted for avoiding invitation for questioning over an alleged N74.6billion fraud carried out while he was in office (read here).

According to Ibrahim, he had prepared himself to honour the invitation of the EFCC on June 28th but was later informed on the same day that the interview had been cancelled. His letter in part reads

“Without any formal invitation to me, the EFCC purported, by a letter dated June 17, 2016, sent to a wrong address of Wole Olanipekun & Co. asking the law firm to make Dr. Ibrahim Shehu Shema available for an interview with the undersigned on Tuesday, June 28, 2016.The letter was signed by Hyecinth A. Edozie. Despite the incongruity in the way and manner the invitation was extended to me through a counsel and also through a wrong address of the same counsel, and notwithstanding the fact that I was already billed to travel to Saudi Arabia for the lesser hajj (Umrah) on the appointment day, I cancelled all the engagements to honour the invitation with my counsel on the said June 28, 2016, only to be informed, around 10am on that day that the interview would no longer hold, as Mr. Hyecinth A. Edozie was out of Abuja, and that a new date, after Sallah, would be communicated.” According to the former governor, his counsel had written to EFCC for a new date but up till today, the agency has refused to give him another date to appear. Describing the agency's action of declaring him wanted, Shema said “As a senior citizen of this country, a legal practitioner of 32 years post-call experience, and a two-time governor of Katsina State, I not only feel seriously embarrassed, disturbed, surprised and confounded by the report sponsored by EFCC, but also feel sorry for our dear country. I feel sorry for the pitiable situation we have found ourselves as Nigerians where and when a sacred institution like the EFCC is pressurized and used to sponsor fake, false, malicious, misleading and unfounded allegations against someone like me, who the EFCC has not at any time accused of fraud, embezzlement, inflation of contract, or any misdemeanour at all. The EFCC deliberately embarked on false propaganda against me and my person by positing that I have ignored several invitations which it extended to me.”