President Bola Tinubu yesterday approved the indefinite suspension from office of Mr. AbdulRasheed Bawa as the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The director of information in the office of the secretary to the government of the federation, Mr. Willie Bassey, disclosed this in a late night press statement.
He said the action followed “weighty” allegations of abuse of office levelled against Bawa adding that his exit was meant to allow for proper investigation into his conduct while in office.
He added that the 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.”
The statement entitled ‘President Bola Ahmed Tinubu suspends Bawa indefinitely from office as chairman Economic & Financial Crimes Commission’ reads: “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.
“This follows weighty allegations of abuse of office levelled against him.
“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.”
Recall that the former governor of Zamfara State, Mr. Bello Bello Matawalle, had, in May accused Bawa of demanding a two million dollars bribe from him.
He made the allegation during an interview with BBC Hausa, amid the ongoing rift between the governor and the anti-graft agency.
“It is not just to always blame governors. It is not only governors who have treasuries, 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.”
Responding to the allegation in an interview with BBC Hausa, Bawa denied the allegations.
He said it would be beneficial for Matawalle to provide supporting evidence for his allegations.
“There is no human being who is 100% clean, I read somewhere he (Matawalle) asked us to extend our investigation to ministers.
“We carry out our investigations thoroughly and if Governor Matawalle has knowledge of any minister or governor involved in corrupt practices, he should report it to the appropriate authorities.
“If he has records of my purported corrupt practices, the appropriate channels for redress would be through reporting to the police, ICPC, and the Code of Conduct. Subsequently, investigations into such complaints would ensue.” he said.
