The Benue State Government on Saturday faulted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) over its claim that over N23billion in state accounts was withdrawn and diverted.

It asked the anti-graft agency to stop publishing figures without stating how impropriety has been established.

The state government accused EFCC of now acting like a strike squad of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and boasted that any genuine, fair, just and equitable investigation would surely exonerate Governor Samuel Ortom.

The government disclosed these in a statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Terver Akase.

He said: “After succumbing to nationwide condemnation of its illegal freezing of Benue State Government accounts, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has resorted to yet another shameful act in its desperation to cripple governance in the state.

“The anti-graft agency’s latest move is the bandying of figures in national dailies claiming that such figures are those of transactions in the accounts owned by the Benue State Government.

“In The Nation Newspaper of Saturday, August 11, 2018, EFCC claimed among other things that a staff of the Benue State Government whose name it gave as ‘Agbo Amada’ has been sacked ‘to avoid making him available for interrogation.’

“The Commission could not disclose where the said government staff worked before he was sacked, obviously because such a person does not exist.”

The state government challenged the EFCC to release more details if it has its facts right.

•Sourced from The Nation report