Arewa Youths Tackle EFCC Chair Over Alleged Intimidation

The Arewa Youths Consultative Forum (AYCF) has called on the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa to desist from all forms of intimation and media trials of northerners under whatever guise.

AYCF in a statement by its national president, Alhaji Shettima Yerima said, the group has been following closely the action of the EFCC amid hasty moves to nail another northern governor, Mohammed Bello Matawalle and urged the EFCC to desist from repeated embarrassment of starting what it cannot finish.

Shettima noted that EFCC as an institution of public service that is crucial to sanitising Nigeria should not be pulled down by the actions of one man (the chairman).

The group said, “In view of this northern governor’s unpleasant experience with this anti-graft agency, we wish to declare that the current EFCC led by Abdulrasheed Bawa is losing steam too fast, compared to what was obtained during the era of Nuhu Ribadu, Farida and Lamorde. This is a very worrisome standard and the current leadership of the agency must fasten its belt and stop this downward slide in operational standards.

“We totally reject the strategy of media trial because it downgrades not just the operational standards of the agency but amounts to deliberate policy of intimidation. In a democratic setting such as Nigeria’s, the Rule of Law is an essential ingredient because it strengthens the constitutional rights and privileges of all Nigerians, unlike in a military dictatorship.”