OFFICIAL RESIDENCE: Mark talks tough, says EFCC chasing shadows

Former Senate President, David Mark, has said that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is chasing shadows over its claim on his house in Apo Legislative Quarters Abuja.

The anti-graft agency had dragged the immediate past Senate President to the Federal High Court in Abuja over the allegation that he illegally acquired the house which used to be his official residence as his private property.

The case has not been heard.

But Mark, in a statement on Tuesday by his Media Assistant, Mr. Paul Mumeh, described the claim by the EFCC as “spurious, contrived and baseless,” adding that the commission or any other agent of government were “chasing shadows” because the property was duly offered for sale, bided for and “he (Mark) purchased it in line with the Federal Government’s monetisation policy”, which was started by the administration of ex- President Olusegun Obasanjo.

He added, “I had the right of first refusal. Even if I did not purchase it, someone else would have. I am a law – abiding citizen. I did not flout any law. Curiously, four houses occupied by the then presiding officers of the National Assembly were offered to the occupants.

“All of us – I, as the then President of the Senate; the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu; the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole; and his deputy, Bayero Nafada – were given the same offer. I am at a loss as to why it is now a subject of contention.

“If this persecution is about politics, my political party and the 2019 elections, I dare say that only God and Nigerians would decide. No amount of persecution would alter the will of God.

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“I had refrained from commenting on this because it is already in court. But they have taken the matter to the court of public opinion.”

Mark’s travails started in September 2017 when the Federal Government through the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property, gave him a 21- day notice to quit the mansion.

The panel chaired by Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, had asked the former Senate President to “show cause” why the Federal Government should not “enforce the recovery of the property for public good.”

 

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