Connect with us

Politics

EFCC disrobes Ekweremadu as ‘anti-corruption ambassador’

Published

on

EFCC disrobes Ekweremadu as ‘anti-corruption ambassador’

The Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu has obviously fallen for a scam plot by the EFCC National Assembly Liaison Officer, Suleiman Bakari who recently appointed the Deputy Senate President as EFCC’s anti-corruption ambassador.

The EFCC has however said it does not confer titles on anyone, but investigates financial crimes, and prosecutes suspects and so is not part of the anti-corruption ambassador title conferred on Ekweremadu on Tuesday.

The commission in a statement of Wednesday said it did not authorize any of its officials to confer such a title on Ekweremadu, or any other politician for that matter.

EFCC’s National Assembly Liaison Officer, Sulaiman Bakari, had during a visit to Ekweremadu reportedly decorated him as an ambassador of the anti-graft agency.

But the statement signed by the commission’s spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said that Bakari acted on his own.

The statement read in part, “The attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has been drawn to some reports in the print and online media, on April 20, 2016 claiming that the anti-graft agency has decorated the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, as “Anti-Corruption Ambassador”.

“According to a statement issued to the Press by the Special Adviser to the Deputy Senate President, Uche Anichukwu, the purported decoration, was carried out by the EFCC National Assembly Liaison Officer, Suleiman Bakari who was quoted to have said:

Read also: PDP shuts down Twitter handle, disowns tweets

“On behalf of my acting chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Mustafa Magu and the entire management and staff of the EFCC, decorate you as an Anti- Corruption Ambassador and formally present this frame, as a token of our appreciation to your person and office, and as a symbol of the institutional partnership between the EFCC and the National Assembly.

“The EFCC totally dissociates itself from the purported action of Sulaiman Bakari as he acted entirely on his own.
“He clearly acted outside his brief as a liaison officer as the management of the Commission at no time mandated him to decorate Ekweremadu or any officer of the National Assembly as Anti- Corruption Ambassador.

“The statutory mandate of the EFCC is the investigation and prosecution of all economic and financial crimes cases, which does not include the decoration of individuals as anti- corruption ambassadors.

“The Commission is not in the habit of awarding titles to individuals. And those enamoured of titles, know the quarters to approach for such honours, not the EFCC.

“Members of the public and stakeholders in the fight against corruption are enjoined to disregard the so-called decoration”, Uwujaren said.

RipplesNigeria …without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now