The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, said that the visit of its Chairman to Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Kazeem Alogba, was a routine exercise.
It was alleged that the visit by the EFCC Chairman to Chief Judge of Lagos State, after a court session where he was prosecution witness was a subject of controversy.
The Commission in a statement said it was constrained to state the fact of the visit to forestall needless innuendos and misrepresentation.
“What the writer termed as controversial was a scheduled courtesy visit to the Chief Judge.
“There was nothing secret or clandestine about the visit which was undertaken by Bawa in his capacity as Executive Chairman, EFCC; and not as a prosecution witness in an ongoing criminal trial before a judge of the Lagos High Court.
“As the writer alluded to, it is not strange for heads of anti-corruption agencies to visit heads of judiciary to solicit for synergy. Lagos State Judiciary, in particular, is critical to EFCC as the bulk of the Commission’s cases are domiciled in the jurisdiction.
“Thus, the visit by the EFCC Chairman to the chief Judge of the state was a routine courtesy call which should not be exploited by mischief makers to fan the embers of disaffection between the Commission and members of the Bench,” the statement read.
The Commission also frowned at the obvious design to draw a non-existent nexus between the visit and the ongoing case where Bawa had been in the witness box for over 5 years.
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