The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has described as untrue allegations that it has become a tool in the hand of President Goodluck Jonathan to deal with state governors that favoured the Peoples Democratic Party‘s zoning arrangement ahead of its presidential primaries.

The commission stressed that its investigations of alleged fraud in some states was neither influenced by the President nor by any other person.

A statement on Friday in Abuja by the Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Mr. Femi Babafemi, dismissed alleged attempts by unnamed politicians to link the commission‘s activities with the next general election as cheap blackmail.

Reports in the media had accused the EFCC of deploying its operatives in some states to intimidate the governors, who were perceived not to be in support of the emergence of Jonathan as the presidential candidate of the PDP.

Some governors, whose names were not mentioned, had accused the commission of using its probe of petitions written by interested parties as a decoy to coerce them to support the ambition of Jonathan.

The petitions were related to mismanagement of statutory allocations and local government fund, especially accruals from the excess crude oil account.

The states so listed were Sokoto, Katsina, Kebbi, Gombe, Jigawa, Zamfara, Bauchi, Kwara, Imo and Rivers.

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