Over 40 anti-corruption Civil Society Organisations Friday called for the sack of the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa, over what they described as alleged disobedience of court orders and the seeming politicisation of the agency’s activities.
The anti-corruption CSOs alleged that the EFCC, under Bawa, had chosen to become an institution known for “brazenly disobeying orders of courts in such a manner that does not only undermine the institutions of Nigeria’s democracy but also indicates a contradiction to the anti-corruption agenda of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.”
The bodies, led by the Chairman, Centre for Anti-corruption and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran; Executive Director, Zero Graft Centre, Kolawole Sanchez-Jude; Chairman, Coalition Against Corruption and Bad Governance, Toyin Raheem; Executive Director, Centre for Public Accountability, Olufemi Lawson; and Ahmed Balogun of Media Rights Concern, among others, spoke at a press conference in Lagos, themed: “EFCC’s Consistent Disobedience of Court Orders is a Recipe for Anarchy; A Call For The Immediate Sack of Mr. AbdulRasheed Bawa”.
According to the anti-graft bodies, aside from the EFCC’s penchant for disobedience of court orders, the situation has reached an “embarrassing height” where the Commission’s boss, Bawa, has been committed to prison more than once within two months for alleged breach of the extant orders of the court.
They said, “EFCC’s gestapo-style regime of disobeying court orders must stop. Nigeria is not a banana republic. Attempts by institutions of state to ridicule the country and make it seem like a lawless fiefdom must be resisted by all. The EFCC seems to be allowing itself to be used as an instrument of political witch-hunt as it targets some individuals more than many others.”
