By Political Animal.
“If anybody asks me to do anything contrary to my conscience or against the rule of law,I will resign my appointment”–EFCC boss Bawa.
We have so many shameless people in government who think that we all have short memory.
Jus like some people told us that they will fix power and end insecurity in 6 months.
Some also told us that they belong to everybody and for nobody,we now know better.
Nigerians keep forgetting that those in the present Government were active players and policy makers in the previous government.
The new EFCC boss should save his message outlines in his laptop and his sermon for now.We have our own records.
It is very possible that he may tell the nation in the nearest future that he was quoted out of context when this sermon begins to bite him.
This was an exclusive on him before now.
“Top EFCC official arrested for theft now head of Lagos zonal office.
Abdulrasheed Bawa’s transfer to the agency’s most prestigious bureau came amidst probe of his untidy involvement in depletion of confiscated assets.
In SEPTEMBER 25, 2020.The management board of the EFCC confirmed a controversial senior detective to a prestigious appointment despite a slate of unsettled corruption allegations and a cacophony of colleagues who cried foul over the potential damage the agency could suffer if it continues to reward questionable conduct within its ranks.
The anti-graft office asked Abdulrasheed Bawa to lead its field office in Lagos with effect from August 8, despite an active probe of his alleged theft of confiscated proceeds of ill-gotten loot at his previous appointment in Port-Harcourt.”
Mr. Bawa was in-charge of the Port-Harcourt zonal office last year when dozens of petrol-bearing trucks that were confiscated from suspected looters were abruptly auctioned off to his proxies at “ridiculous prices”.
Three of his junior colleagues who were alarmed by the sheer mismanagement of priced public assets and other suspicious acts of Mr. Bawa’s took immediate steps to curb his excesses by filing anonymous complaints to the headquarters in Abuja.
He was subsequently arrested and detained for several days in Port-Harcourt before Ibrahim Magu, erstwhile head of the agency, ordered his transfer to the agency’s training school in Abuja pending conclusion of investigation.
The months-long investigation into Mr Bawa’s alleged corruption and a jarring crackdown on Mr Magu and other ex-senior officials of the EFCC were yet to be concluded when he was tipped for the top job in Lagos, a development that underscores how arbitrary power, unmoored to a transparent standard, can propel individual careers in a frightening miscarriage of justice.
The government said Magu and others were arrested and flushed out to save the EFCC from institutional damage,
But how can you secure people’s confidence if you only trade one crooked officer for another?
Can we continue the game of “Loot re-looted”
Mr. Bawa was accused of selling at least 244 trucks worth between N20-30 million each to his proxies at N100,000, or slightly more, per unit.
A proxy sold one of the tankers to a businessman in Ibadan for N14.8 million.
The businessman has been evading invitation and the agency is reluctant to declare him wanted in order not to draw public attention to the investigation.
Mr. Bawa’s handling of the trucks had deprived the Nigerian people of at least N4.88 billion in potential loot recovery.
If you take a conservative approach and multiply the trucks by N20 million each, even though some were far above that price, you will arrive at N4.88 billion for the 244 trucks he sold out.
So Bawa is being compensated for ensuring that nearly N5 billion did not go into the public treasury.?
EFCC’s overhead for 2019 was N3.6 billion, which was also enough to cover its staff strength of 4,962.
Procedurally, recovered cash and assets are returned to the public coffers upon conclusion of forfeiture proceedings in court.
While some of the 244 trucks have been declared as proceeds of corruption by the Federal High Court, the forfeiture proceedings on most of them have yet to be concluded before Mr. Bawa sold them off.
Can you see the reason why I am pleading with him to save his sermon on his laptop. Nigerians are already FULL.
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