DSS Quizzes Suspended EFCC Chairman, Bawa

The Department of State Services (DSS) has quizzed the suspended chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Abdulrasheed Bawa for questioning.

    The spokesperson of the Service, Dr. Peter Afunanya, who confirmed this last night, said Bawa honoured DSS invitation after he was suspended from office.

According to him, “Bawa arrived a few hours ago. The invitation relates to some investigative activities concerning him.”

The DSS, however, didn’t state if he has been released on bail or is still being held at their facility.

Bawa’s suspension is coming barely one week after governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele was suspended President Bola Tinubu.

Tinubu Suspends EFCC Chairman Bawa Indefinitely

President Tinubu has sent Bawa on indefinite suspension from office.

 According to a statement by the office of the secretary to government of the federation (OSGF), the removal of the commission’s chairman is to allow for proper investigation into his conduct while in office.

This, the statement noted, followed weighty allegations of abuse of office leveled against Bawa.

 The president directed Bawa to immediately handover the affairs of his office to the director of Operations in the commission who will oversee the affairs of the Office of the Chairman of the Commission pending the conclusion of the investigation.

The suspended EFCC boss was the first staff of the commission to be appointed as the chairman.

Appointed in 2021 at the age of 40 while he was Deputy Chief Detective Superintendent heading the Lagos zonal office of the EFCC, Bawa was confirmed as the chairman of the commission in February 2021.

He joined the organisation in 2004 and was in October 2015 appointed to head the commission’s investigations of Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former minister of Petroleum Resources, and her associates.

He is the youngest chairman of the commission as previous substantive chairpersons of the EFCC, including Ibrahim Magu, who chaired the agency in acting capacity for almost five years, stepped into the highly coveted office at well over 40 years of age.

The pioneer chairman of EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu, assumed office at about 43 in 2003 and left in 2007.

His successor, Farida Waziri, assumed office in May 2008 at the age of 59 and left on November 23, 2011.

Ibrahim Lamorde, stepped into office at the age of 49 November 23, 2011, and left on November 9, 2015.

Apart from his record age, Bawa, was the first substantive chairman without a background in the Nigerian Police Force, a feature which appears to be in line with one of the reported recommendations of the Ayo Salami panel

Bawa who hails from Jega, in Kebbi State, graduated from the Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics (Second Class Upper) in 2001.

Bawa, who joined the EFCC as an Assistant Detective Superintendent (ADS) in 2004, also holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs and Diplomacy which he obtained from the same university in 2012.

He was part of the pioneer EFCC Cadet Officers, course one, 2005.

He rose through the ranks to become a Deputy Chief Detective Superintendent (DCDS), a position he has been holding since 2016 up till the time of his nomination as the chairman of the EFCC.

He has about 17 years working with the EFCC as a detective and has vast investigation experience and has been part of prosecution of advance fee fraud, official corruption, bank fraud, money laundering and other economic and financial crimes related offences.

Bawa was deployed to head the commission’s operations zonal office in Lagos in August 2020 and remains in the position till his appointment as chairman of the commission.