The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has
reacted to an explosive tape suggesting Nigeria’s Attorney General and Minister
of Justice, Abubakar Malami controls the agency.
In the trending audio, Mohammed Idris, a lawyer and police
officer, attached to the EFCC, made serious claims regarding the influence of
Malami.
The operative stated that the AGF, who supervises the
commission head by Abdulrasheed Bawa, compromised cases of corruption.
In one of recordings published by Daily Nigerian, Idris is
heard discussing with Abdulbari Yusuf, a brother of retired Rear Admiral, Tahir
Yusuf, facing trial.
The one-time Director of Navy Accounts and his company,
Aston, had their accounts frozen by the EFC at the early stage of
investigations.
Idris advised Yusuf how to win the case at the Court of
Appeal and also extract money from an account.
“If he has money in any account linked with his BVN (Bank
Verification Number), he should quickly evacuate them. If he makes transfers,
EFCC will still trace it. He should only withdraw and then deposit into another
account,” he said.
Earlier, Yusuf declared Malami was in charge of the
anti-graft body, and had ordered the unfreezing of “big accounts”.
“Malami now controls the EFCC. The commission is in his
hands. Once Malami speaks, the account will be unfrozen. They are unfreezing
suspects’ accounts, including the big cases,” he revealed.
In a release Thursday night, EFCC Head of Media, Wilson
Uwujaren, announced the start of investigation of the tape.
He stated that the commission will activate its internal
mechanism to deal with the issues arising therefrom.
The spokesman said the EFCC does not condone acts of
corruption and abuse of privilege for financial gratification by personnel.
“Without prejudice to the outcome of the investigation,
snippets of the audio recording clearly showed an abysmally compromised “officer”
dropping names to ingratiate his benefactor, a relative of a crime suspect.
“By the alleged action, the said officer is no more than a
corrupt fifth columnist with scant regard for the values of the Commission.
“The action is contemptuous of the established Standard
Operating Procedure of the EFCC. Such professional indiscretion has no place in
the new EFCC.
“The Commission encourages citizens who encounter any such
unprofessional conduct by personnel of the EFCC to report to the Commission in
support of our quest to build a better Agency.
“Reporting such conducts has been made easy by the Eagle Eye
App, a financial crimes reporting application which was launched earlier in the
year.
“We encourage members of the public to download the App from
the Apple and Google Play Store and put it to use”, the statement added.
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