Despite the fact that the Finance Management Committee set up by the Niger State government has not finished its work, the committee might have released names of some people to be investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is viewing this development as politically motivated ahead of the forthcoming local government election in the state, but the chief press secretary to the Niger State governor, Dr Ibraheem Dooba, debunked the allegation.

A PDP source, however, revealed that the decision to bring the EFCC to investigate the people few weeks to the local government election and before the end of the committee’s work, coupled with the fact that the matter involves PDP officials under the former Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu, had given the whole exercise a political motivation.

Also, the source maintained that the committtee might have been pressured to bring out the names of those PDP bigwigs following the observation about the state government by the PDP deputy chairman, Barrister Tanko Beji, who stated recently that the Niger State government has not started working, which was believed did not go down well with some people.

“Instead of the committee unearthing contracts running into billions of naira awarded, it is coming out with money meant for security”, he said.

When asked why the hurry in bringing in the EFCC, the chief press secretary to the Niger State governor, Dr Ibraheem Dooba, stated that the state can work with preliminary reports and that the state government was discussing with the EFCC to recover monies misappropriated.

On whether the move was informed by political motives, the governor’s spokesman said, “How can following the laid down procedure amount to political intimidation? It was not informed by the local government election.”