By Celestine Okafor (Editor-in-Chief) @CelestineOkaf11
The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) Said on Friday, that the attention of the Commission has been drawn to a so-called “exclusive’’ news report making the rounds on social media to the effect that the EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa and former Chairman of the defunct Skye Bank, Mr. Tunde Ayeni, are travelling together, abroad, on a clandestine, self-serving mission.
According to the EFCC in a statement on Friday September 2nd, 2022 by it's spokesman, Wilson Uwugiaren, the story is absolute 'FALSE', and an attempt to "push a certain malodorous agenda".
The statement further stated that "if it were not for its potential to confound and confuse the unwary, the Commission would have ignored the story. However, there is every need to set the facts straight.
"To start with, there was never a meeting and certainly no “plan” between the EFCC Chair and Mr. Ayeni to go anywhere together.
"Furthermore, while the EFCC Chairman is at this time on an approved mission abroad, Ayeni, whom the fiction-turned-news story says is on a clandestine trip with Mr. Bawa, is, from checks, right here in Nigeria. A cursory check would have confirmed that.
"If the design is to get the Commission to compromise its mandate to investigate and prosecute all cases of economic and financial crimes, then the purveyors of the tendentious story have failed woefully.
"No matter what, the Commission will be guided only by that mandate and its very clear Standard Operating Procedure and WILL NOT be blackmailed or act in any way predetermined or tele-guided by private interests.
"The EFCC WILL ONLY pursue the public interest as defined by the law establishing the Commission", Uwugiaren stated in the statement. NNL.
