The Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, says he is ready to face the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in court again.
Ikuforiji, who was recently discharged for financial impropriety by a Federal High Court, had been in and out of court for three years. However, after his discharge, the EFCC appealed the judgment.
Ikuforiji, while picking his governorship intention form at the secretariat of the All Progressives Congress on Saturday, told reporters that he had nothing to hide and the EFCC would fail again if it dragged him to court.
He said, “If the EFCC wants to appeal the case or whatever, it is the business of the EFCC; it is not my business. In the 100-year history of Nigeria, how many heads of government have submitted themselves to the kind of open persecution I experienced in the last three years in this state?
“If the EFCC received a petition from faceless people and they would not investigate the petitioners and they descended on me, and they found out that all the three points raised in the petition were false, and they still went ahead in search of other things, what do you expect?
“It is clear they know what they are doing. I hope we won’t have to go through all these again. I am ready; I am a man. I am the chief lawmaker of Lagos State. if I have won all over at the lower level, be rest assured that the appeal will amount to nothing if they appeal.”
The speaker, who was accompanied by his campaign manager, several aides and the spokesman of the Assembly, Segun Olulade, stated that he was ready to give residents of the state the best governance.
On his chances among the several contestants for the coveted office, the Speaker, who was confident of coming top at the party primaries, said that this was not his first time of contesting election and that as the Speaker of the House, he contested to get to the Assembly and contested to become the Speaker.
Ikuforiji, who did not rule out the possibility of a consensus governorship candidate, said, “You talk of consensus candidate, it is all part of the game, there can be a consensus governorship candidate and we will not be the first, even President Goodluck Jonathan is the consensus candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party. So, there is nothing wrong in having a consensus candidate.”