The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has accused a former governor and two former ministers of orchestrating planned protests against the agency. This revelation was made by Dele Oyewale, the Head of Media and Publicity for the EFCC, during a briefing held on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the EFCC had warned about the impending protests being organized to challenge its operations. Addressing journalists at the Strategic Communications Inter-agency Policy Committee briefing in Abuja, Oyewale provided further insights into the situation.
He announced that 259 civil society organizations, operating under the Coalition for Transparency and Economic Reform, had withdrawn their support for the protests.
Oyewale stated, “I received a report that about 259 civil society organizations under the aegis of the Coalition for Transparency and Economic Reform came out publicly on Wednesday to dissociate themselves from the so-called protests. If you have 259 civil society organizations coming out publicly to say that we are not going to support you (protests), then, their moral base is totally weakened.”
He further emphasized that these organizations had identified a former governor and two former ministers as the main instigators behind the anti-EFCC demonstrations. “Even this same group, they are saying that their own intelligence shows that an ex-governor, and two former ministers, according to them, are the arrowhead behind the so-called protests. That is their own intelligence,” Oyewale added.
Oyewale warned that the planned protests were not in the best interest of the nation and cautioned youths against being misled and used in a cause they did not fully understand. He stressed the importance of the Commission’s work in combating corruption and how its actions inevitably attract resistance from those with hidden agendas.
“So, you can see that across the country, the Commission is receiving very, very reliable support, including the media and every stakeholder in the anti-corruption project,” he said. Oyewale acknowledged that the EFCC’s activities affected people involved in corrupt practices, leading to the backlash against the agency.
He reiterated, “Generally and holistically, all of these people that are talking about end the EFCC, don’t end EFCC, kill EFCC, don’t kill EFCC, they are people that are tangentially affected by the activities of the commission. If you have a commission like the EFCC, you are not receiving some kind of an attack, it either means that we are not effective, or the public is not concerned about what we are doing.”