BY HENRY UMORU

ABUJA-FORMER Minister of Transport, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, Sunday condemned the manner former governors were being arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

He also warned that it was dangerous to assault the myths of leadership and authority.

Babatope, a member of the Board of Trustees, BoT of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in a message to Vanguard, urged the Chairman of EFCC, Mrs Farida Waziri, not to dramatize the arrests by the agency.

Babatope said: “It is equally dangerous to assault the myths of leadership and authority in the way these arrests are being affected”.

The PDP chieftain, who also appealed to the EFCC chairman not to turn the commission into an inquisition, said a clear achievement of the Obasanjo administration had been the establishment of the EFCC and ICPC to fight corruption in Nigeria.

He said as good and desirable as the anti-graft agencies were, he would, however, want to appeal to the EFCC, in particular, to scale down considerably the seeming over-dramatization of arrests.

According to him, a man is presumed innocent until proved guilty by judicial process.

“It is equally dangerous to assault the myths of leadership and authority in the way these arrests are being affected.

“I once again appeal to the EFCC not to turn the desirable body into an inquisition. We should not turn holding of public offices in Nigeria into a crime,” Babatope said.

It would be recalled that the ant-graft agency had last Thursday arrested and detained three former PDP governors over alleged mismanagement of about N100 billion.

Those arrested and still in the net of the EFCC are former governor Adebayo Alao-Akala of Oyo state, Gbenga Daniel of Ogun, Aliyu Akwe Doma of Nasarawa State with Senator Danjuma Goje of Gombe State declared wanted.

Spokesperson of the agency, Femi Babafemi, said the governors were wanted in connection with alleged diversion and misappropriation of N58.5 billion by Alao-Akala; Gbenga Daniel, N25 billion; Akwe Doma, N18 billion, and Danjuma Goje, N52 billion.