CSOs, Lawyers Petition Buhari, Want EFCC Under Bawa Probed

Anti-corruption organisations and constitutional lawyers seeking the removal of the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Abdulrasheed Bawa have taken their battle to the presidency.

After several demands that the inspector-general of police (IGP) should arrest Bawa for disobedience of court order without success, the CSOs yesterday sent a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari, demanding the EFCC boss’ arrest and prosecution for official misconduct and abuse of office.

In the petition, titled: “Bawa Not Fit To Remain In Office”, they cited brazen disobedience of court orders and politicisation of the commission and his continued stay in office despite a court order committing him to prison for contempt as some of the sins of Bawa.

The “Bawa Must Go” protests, which continued on Tuesday are being led by CACOL Chairman, 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; Spokesperson for the Transparency and Accountability Group, Ayodeji Ologun; Director, Activists for Good Governance, Declan Ihehaire; and Ahmed Balogun of Media Rights Concern, among over 120 notable leaders of Anti-corruption CSOs.

Barr. Mogbojuri Kayode of the Citizens Rights Advocacy Group (CRAG), is also leading over 20 constitutional lawyers in the protest.

In a press statement signed by spokesperson for the over 130 CSOs and 20 constitutional lawyers, Olufemi Lawson, which was made available to LEADERSHIP Friday in Abuja, the activists said they had also submitted a copy of the petition to the IGP.

The latest action, according to them, is “to intimate the police authorities that a convict cannot be allowed to be walking freely without being reined in as ordered by the courts.”

Lawson urged Buhari to immediately suspend Bawa to restore confidence in the capacity of the commission to truly fight financial crimes; direct the IGP to effect his arrest in line with a court order and commission an enquiry into the workings of the EFCC, its present engagements and happenings within the agency.

The activists said, being anti-corruption crusaders, they could not watch aloof while the EFCC boss makes a mess of Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency, lamenting that his modus operandi in the commission was “causing serious concerns and disgust among the top hierarchy of the Commission.”

The activists stated, “It is on the basis of the continued perpetration of illegality in the EFCC, that we promptly alerted the nation to it, issuing a seven-day ultimatum to the IGPlice to effect Bawa’s arrest and make him face justice. It is worrisome that weeks after we issued this ultimatum, Bawa is still walking free, continuing the perpetration of illegality that has become the identity of the EFCC.”

Among others, the CSOs listed the unruly activities of the EFCC under Bawa to include “arrests without valid warrants, detention of suspects beyond the duration allowed by the courts, seizure of properties belonging to suspected persons before any such declaration by a court of competent jurisdiction, rascally handling of suspicions of financial crimes that appear like witch-hunting and brazen disobedience of court orders.”

According to the petition, the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), in a letter dated 18th February, 2021, asked the National Assembly to reject Bawa’s nomination as EFCC chair, based on several controversies that characterised his tenure in previous positions in the EFCC, giving the grave implication of such, on the exalted position.

In the light of the aforementioned, the anti-corruption CSOs urged Buhari to: “Direct the Inspector-General of Police to immediately effect the arrest of Abdulrasheed Bawa in compliance with a subsisting order of the court and make him face the full consequences of his actions, based on court orders that we are sure he is aware of, but has refused to act upon.