President Tinubu’s cleaning of the augean stable continued Wednesday with the indefinite suspension of the anti-corruption Czar, Abdurasheed Bawa, few hours after he was summoned to the presidential villa. This is coming few days after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele was suspended from office. The Department of State Services (DSS)
President Tinubu’s cleaning of the augean stable continued Wednesday with the indefinite suspension of the anti-corruption Czar, Abdurasheed Bawa, few hours after he was summoned to the presidential villa. This is coming few days after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele was suspended from office.
The Department of State Services (DSS) swung into action immediately and arrested the suspended Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa. Bawa arrived the headquarters of DSS at about 9:02pm.
Bawa’s suspension, which is indefinite, was contained in a statement released on Wednesday night by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. The statement was signed by Mr. Willie Bassey its Director of Information.
Below is the full statement on the suspension:
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF THE FEDERATION
14th June, 2023
PRESS RELEASE
PRESIDENT BOLA AHMED TINUBU SUSPENDS BAWA INDEFINITELY FROM OFFICE AS CHAIRMAN ECONOMIC & FINANCIAL CRIMES COMMISSION
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, has approved the indefinite suspension from office of Mr. AbdulRasheed Bawa, CON, as the Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to allow for proper investigation into his conduct while in office.
2. This follows weighty allegations of abuse of office levelled against him.
3. Mr Bawa has been directed to immediately handover the affairs of his office to the Director, Operations in the Commission, who will oversee the affairs of the Office of the Chairman of the Commission pending the conclusion of the investigation.
Willie Bassey
Director, Information
Spokesman of the DSS, Peter Afunanya, confirmed Bawa’s arrest in a statement. “The Department of State Services (DSS) has invited Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa, the suspended Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
“Bawa arrived a few hours ago. The invitation relates to some investigative activities concerning him”, Afunanya said in the statement.
It would be recalled that there have been several allegations of malfeasance flying around on the conduct of Mr. Bawa as EFCC boss with Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Olisa Agbakoba, asking President Bola Tinubu to dismantle the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in his bid to have a successful anti-corruption war.
The legal luminary also urged the President to relieve the EFCC chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa of his job, in order to have a fresh leadership for the agency in the new administration.
He said, “We need to talk about anti-corruption. The anti-corruption process is not working. I have challenged the constitutionality of the EFCC. The EFCC is a behemoth and it needs to be dismantled.
“Mr. Bawa needs to go because what he’s doing is not attracting people’s confidence. He needs to go. He’s always in battles with everybody. Now, he’s battling Metawalle. That’s not the way to fight corruption.
“We need to see Mr. Bawa step aside honourably so that the anti-corruption process can be seen to be genuinely fought by the President without any equivocation,” he said.
The EFCC boss was also alleged to have defied court orders on some instances
