By Chibuike Nwabuko
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – Right Activist and former Chairman of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof Chidi Odinkalu has condemned the continued illegal detentuon of former Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa.
Odinkalu who took to his verified X page (formerly known as twitter) to comment on the abnormality said:
“Abdulrasheed Bawa of @officialEFCC has been disappeared beyond the reach of the law or care of legality. This is just not right.”
Sundiata Post recalls that the embattled Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa was invited by the Department of State Security Services (DSS) for interrogations few hours after he was suspended by President Bola Tinubu on the 14th of June, 2023.
This followed an earlier “invitation” of Mr Bawa by the SSS a few hours after President Bola Tinubu suspended him.
“The invitation was related to some investigative activities concerning him,” Peter Afunanya, the Public Relations Officer of SSS, said in a statement.
The SSS’ statement, which was tweeted via the agency’s Twitter handle at 10.48 pm on Wednesday, said Mr Bawa “arrived for interrogation a few hours ago.
Mr Bawa presumably honoured the invitation at the SSS headquarters in Abuja from where Mr Afunaya issued his statement on Wednesday.
It came about two weeks after a confrontation between DSS and EFCC over their shared building in Lagos.
DSS operatives blocked EFCC staff members from resuming work in the building in the hours-long stand-off on 30 May.
It took the directive of President Tinubu, who was barely a day old as president, for DSS operatives to allow EFCC staff to access the building.
Earlier on Wednesday, the office of the Secretary to the Government of Federation (SGF) had in a statement signed by Willie Bassey, Director of Information, said the EFCC boss’ suspension resulted from “weighty allegations of abuse of office levelled against him.”
Without giving details of the allegations against Mr Bawa, the statement said the anti-graft official needed to step aside “to allow for proper investigation into his conduct while in office.”
According to the statement, Mr 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 specific allegations that Mr Bawa is being investigated cannot be confirmed yet.
Prior to this development, the immediate-past governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, accused Mr Bawa of demanding $2 million as a bribe from him.
But the EFCC denied Mr Matawalle’s allegation.
The anti-corruption agency in May revealed that Mr Matawalle was being investigated by it for a N70 billion fraud.
Sundiata Post recalls that leadership succession at the EFCC since its inception in 2003 has always been steeped in controversies.
Recall that in 2021, Mr Bawa took the helm at the commission under similar circumstances after his predecessor, Ibrahim Magu, was suspended from office by then-President Muhammadu Buhari, over allegations of corruption.
Mr Bawa became the second major appointee of former President Muhammadu Buhari to be suspended by Mr Tinubu.
The DSS full statement on Mr Bawa’s detention reads:
DSS INVITES MR ABDULRASHEED BAWA, SUSPENDED EFCC CHAIRMAN
The Department of State Services (DSS) has invited Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa, the suspended Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Bawa arrived a few hours ago.
The invitation relates to some investigative activities concerning him.
Peter Afunanya Ph.D, fsi
Public Relations Officer
Department of State Services
National Headquarters
Abuja
14th June, 2023
Bawa has been in detention now for about 98 days without trial in court contrary to the stipulations of the law.
