Tinubu Suspends EFCC Chairman From Office Indefinitely

by EDITORJune 14, 2023June 14, 20230999

In order to allow for a thorough investigation of Mr. AbdulRasheed Bawa’s conduct while in office, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, has accepted his suspension from his position as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for an extended period of time.

This comes after serious claims of office abuse made against him.

Mr. Bawa has been instructed to immediately transfer control of his office’s operations to the Director of Operations of the Commission, who will manage the office’s operations until the investigation is over.

Recall that on May 20, 2023, the immediate past governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle had accused the EFCC chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, of demanding $ 2 million as a bribe from him.

The EFCC however denied the claim by Bello Matawalle that its chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, allegedly demanded $ 2 million as a bribe from him.

Mr Matawalle in an interview with BBC Hausa on Friday accused Mr Bawa, of asking for the bribe.

The governor is under investigation by the anti-corruption agency over the alleged pocketing of N70 billion from the Zamfara State government coffers.

The EFCC said the governor allegedly siphoned Zamfara’s funds sourced as a loan from an old-generation bank purportedly for the execution of projects in local governments in the state. The anti-graft commission said the governor used proxies who posed as contractors for the projects and got paid but did not execute the projects.

In the interview, Mr Matawalle accused the EFCC of targeting only governors while ignoring officials with budgetary allocation at the federal level.

“It is not just to always blame governors. It is not only governors who have treasury, the federal government also has. What does the EFCC boss do to them? As he is claiming he has evidence on governors, let him show the world evidence of those at the federal level.

“If he exits office, people will surely know he is not an honest person. I have evidence against him. Let him vacate the office, I am telling you within 10 seconds probably more than 200 people will bring evidence of bribes he collected from them. He knows what he requested from me but I declined.

“He requested a bribe of two million dollars from me and I have evidence of this. He knows the house we met, he invited me and told me the conditions. He told me governors were going to his office but I did not. If I don’t have evidence, I won’t say this,” the governor said in the interview.

But in a swift response, the EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, dared the governor to provide evidence to back his claim. Mr Uwujaren said the commission will not be drawn into a mud fight with a suspect under investigation for corruption and unconscionable pillage of the resources of his state.

“The attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has been drawn to a trending interview granted to the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, by Bello Muhammed Matawalle, governor of Zamfara State, where he allegedly made wild bribery allegations against the Executive Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa

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