President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Wednesday night approved the indefinite suspension of the Chairman Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa.
According to a statement from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) and signed by the Director, Information, OSGF, Willie Bassey the suspension according to the Federal Government was to allow “proper investigation into his conduct while in office.”
A few hours after the suspension, the Department of State Services (DSS) invited Bawa for interrogation.
According to the statement, Bawa has been directed to “immediately hand over the affairs of his office to the Director, 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 QUEST TIMES reliably gathered that Bawa was grilled at a facility popularly called “Yellow House” at the headquarters of the secret police in Abuja.
After Bawa, was suspended, a series of allegations against him quickly took over Nigerian social media sites.
The suspended anti-graft boss as a public officer should publicly answer some of the most damming allegations against him
Matawalle’s $2m bribe allegation
Former governor of Zamfara State Bello Matawalle made the most recent allegation of transgressions against Bawa, saying that he demanded a $2 million bribe.
Bawa refuted this accusation and accused Matawalle of blatantly plundering the state’s revenue.
Spending $30OK for hotel accommodation during the recent lesser hajj in Mecca?
A coalition of Civil Society Organisation in May accused the suspended Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa of lavishly spending hundred of thousands of dollars during the lesser Hajj in Saudi Arabia.
Reports indicate that he secured six opulent rooms at the Hilton Hotel in Mecca, and similarly resided in Sheraton in Jeddah, incurring a staggering expenditure nearing $300,000.
In the spirit of transparency and accountability, Mr. Bawa owes the Nigerian public a detailed account of how he facilitated his accommodation during the lesser Hajj in Saudi Arabia.
Illegal auction of over 200 Trucks
Bawa allegedly sold 244 confiscated petrol trucks to his cronies in 2020.
The vehicles according to sources in the EFCC were seized from crime perpetrators when he was heading the Port-Harcourt Zonal office of the agency.
According to Peoples Gazette, an online newspaper, the suspended EFCC boss auction the trucks worth between N20-30 million each to his proxies at N100,000, per unit.”
The newspaper quoted a senior official of the anti-graft agency saying, “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.”
Ibrahim Magu, the EFCC acting chairman at the time, ordered his detention in Port-Harcourt, where he spent days being questioned over the allegations.