EFCC Chairpersons…..The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is a Nigerian law enforcement agency that investigates financial crimes such as advance fee fraud (419 fraud) and money laundering. The EFCC was established in 2003, partially in response to pressure from the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), which named Nigeria as one of 23 countries non-cooperative in the international community’s efforts to fight money laundering.
This article looks at the four sacked EFCC chairpersons from the inception of the organization since 2003 and the reasons for their sack.
Nuhu Ribadu
According to Wikipedia, during the course of his duty Ribadu was offered bribes to pervert the course of justice, amongst these was a State governor who offered Ribadu $15 million and a house abroad. Interviewed from Washington D.C. on the BBC’s Hardtalk programme, Ribadu said that he took the money and used the bribe as evidence to prosecute the state governor. This claim has however been refuted by the ex-governor who noted that the fact that Ribadu put the money in the CBN is not a proof that he gave the money. Ribadu escaped two assassination attempts in Nigeria before he left the country for the United Kingdom in early 2009.
In December 2007, Inspector-General of Police Mike Okiro ordered that Ribadu be temporarily removed from the position of EFCC chairman and ordered him to attend the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in Kuru, Jos, Plateau State for a mandatory one-year course. The decision was criticised by, among others, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, House of Representatives members, and All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) national chairman Edwin Ume-Ezeoke as politically motivated and/or likely to set back the fight against corruption. On 22 December 2008, as widely predicted, he was dismissed from the Nigerian Police force by the Nigerian Police Service Commission (PSC). He left Nigeria and in April assumed a fellowship at the Center for Global Development. He returned to join the ACN as a presidential aspirant in the 2011 general elections.
Mrs Farida Waziri
Former chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs Farida Waziri, was removed from her position by President Goodluck Jonathan on 23 November 2011, and on 28 November 2011 was replaced by Ibrahim Lamorde as acting chairman. According to Wikipedia, her dismissal may have been related to accusations that the EFCC had been selective in its investigations, or to her falling out with the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke over the prosecution of cases that were brought before the court. It was also alleged that Waziri might have compromised the investigation into financial misappropriation against the former governor of Bayelsa state, Timipreye Sylva In some cases, as with a case against former Edo State governor Lucky Igbinedion, the court imposed negligible penalties. However, the EFCC may have opened the door by agreeing to accept a plea bargain.
After leaving office, Waziri wrote a book about her experience at the EFCC. In her book she claimed that she was removed from office by ex-President Dr Goodluck Jonathan, because of her probe of some oil racketeers.
Waziri had made the statement in an interview in 2017, which prompted a response from Jonathan’s spokesman, Ikechukwu Eze who debunked the claims by the former EFCC boss, berating her for insisting on the narrative.
Ibrahim Lamorde
President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, November 9, sacked the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Lamorde without an official statement on why the anti-graft agency boss was removed. However, in a publication by Legit.ng obtained and published an exclusive documents signed by the former Attorney General of Nigeria, Bello Adoke (SAN) which showed that Lamorde was sacked as a result of a corruption case against the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) chairman, Danladi Umar. The documents revealed that Danladi consistently asked Taiwo Rasheed, a former Comptroller of Customs, for 10 million naira bribe. In failure to meet up with the amount, Taiwo petitioned the EFCC in the case against Dan Ladi. The EFCC then launched a case against Dan Ladi and found out that he had texted Taiwo his account number using his own phone number and also sent Taiwo the details of his PA, Ali Gambo Abdullahi to Mr. Taiwo’s number. On the same day, Taiwo paid 1.8 million naira into Dan Ladi’s account that was withdrawn by his personal assistant, Ali Gambo. After the case was reviewed by Bello Adoke (SAN), the former AGF wrote to President Jonathan on Wednesday, May 7, 2014, advising him to sack Lamorde. He wrote: “In light of the foregoing therefore, Your Excellency may wish to initiate the necessary steps for the removal of the Chairman.” Reacting to what the former AGF wrote, Lamorde wrote back to the AGF, saying there was a strong evidence that Dan Ladi was trying to cover up his scandal.
Ibrahim Magu
Magu was drilled on Monday by the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) over allegations of corruption.
He was later detained at the headquarters of the Force Criminal Investigations Department in Abuja where he spent the night.
According to BusinessDay, a source close to the police revealed on Tuesday that Magu was detained to stop him from damaging documents meant for investigation. The source said Magu may spend a second night in detention as the evidence against him is so overwhelming and he would find it very difficult to deny the evidence.
Magu’s current travails seemed to have been intensified by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who had advised President Buhari to sack Magu over alleged fraud, leading to speculations about a power play among top officials in the Buhari administration.
Magu’s interrogation, meanwhile, has divided members of PACAC, with Femi Odekunle, one of the members, describing Magu’s reported arrest and interrogations as the direct result of power play at the presidency.
According to Odekunle, “The alleged originating Malami memo, up to the current ‘arrest’, seems an outcome of power-play by power blocs in the corridors of power in which Malami appears to be an arrow-head or major agent of a power bloc that is not really interested in, or in support of, Buhari’s anti-corruption fight.”
He noted that Magu’s non-confirmation by the 8th Assembly, orchestrated by a power bloc and supported by the DSS ‘security’ reports, is part of the same power play.
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