The Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, has said he is not afraid of being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

The governor, who said this in response to the petition written against him by Mr. Yinka Odumakin to the EFCC, described the efforts of those who he called blackmailers as exercises in futility.

The governor’s response was contained in a statement made available to our correspondent by his media aide, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, on Tuesday.

Aregbesola said he had been commended by the ICPC for the prudent manner he was managing the resources of the state.

The statement partly read, “Aregbesola has a record that will be hard to beat in public finance especially given the magnitude of the works done in relation to the resources that are available to the state.

“Please, let them ask the ICPC when they take their petition there next time for a copy of a letter by the anti-graft body written to Governor Aregbesola last year which formed the basis of the agency’s resolve to have Governor Aregbesola as the lead speaker at its lecture in 2014.

“Perhaps, that will further confirm why their efforts to blackmail this governor are exercises in futility.”

Odumakin, who is an indigene of Osun State but based in Lagos State, is one of the brains behind the Osun Stakeholders’ Summit which was allegedly prevented from holding in Osogbo, the state capital.

He accused the governor of massive corruption and financial recklessness which according to him had plunged the state into a financial mess.

He stated that the state and its citizens had been turned into objects of ridicule due to the alleged recklessness of the Aregbesola administration.

He said in the petition, “In addition, the state is littered with abandoned projects even though loans were secured by this administration to execute them. Today, our dear state has become the embodiment of lack, poverty, purposelessness and wickedness.”