▪︎Describes unceremonious exits of predecessors as corruption fighting back
Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, said the commission was investigating the withdrawal of over N5 billion from the treasury of one State by the state “government”.
Bawa disclosed this on Thursday at the media briefing organised by the Presidential Communication Team at the State House, Abuja.
He said this was made possible through the effort of the newly-created Department of Intelligence at the Commussion.
The EFCC boss declined to disclose the affected state in order not to compromise its ongoing efforts at establishing a prima facie case.
He said the Commission was also being careful not to be guilty of media trial.
He assured Nigerians that investigations by the commission would, henceforth, be intelligence driven.
On his his statement that he had been receiving threat messages, Bawa said he had phoned the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Usman Alkali Baba over the matter.
He promised to write a formal letter to the IGP when asked if he had done so.
On Cyber crimes, he said the commission had arrested 1,502 internet fraudsters from January till date, stressing that the rising increase of the incidents was tarnishing the image of the country.
He said a Tactical Operation Center was being built to deal with the issues of cyber crimes
▪︎Why Former EFCC chairmen exited unceremoniously – Bawa
The EFCC chair at the briefing attributed the unpleasant circumstances surrounding exits of his predecessors to “corruption fighting back.”
He was responding to a specific question on the issue.
He said there were reasons why occupiers of the office would be considered as enemies by persons whom they had denied the enjoyment of an illegally acquired wealth.
According to him, such persons who had been stopped and made to relinquish illicitly-acquired assets “always go out to embarrass and get their pound of flesh from the official deemed to have been their nemesis.”
He also disclosed that some persons had already started a move to tarnish his image, moving round and securing services of media outlets to execute the plot against him.
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