Few hours after President Muhammadu Buhari nominated Abdulrasheed Bawa on Tuesday for Senate confirmation as the next substantive chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), news surfaced online that he was arrested and detained by the anti-graft agency in 2019 for selling at least 244 trucks worth between N20-30 million each to his proxies at N100,000 per unit.
According to the report, Bawa’s handling of dozens of petrol-bearing trucks that were confiscated from suspected looters deprived the country of at least N4.88 billion in potential loot recovery.
It was alleged that the new EFCC chairman who was then in charge of the Port Harcourt zonal office abruptly auctioned the trucks in 2019 to his proxies at “ridiculous prices”.
However, the EFCC has refuted the claim by the online publication, saying the agency never detained or arrested Abdulrasheed Bawa, the chairman-designate of the commission, over corruption allegations.
A statement by the commission’s spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, on Tuesday, described a media report about Mr Bawa’s alleged corruption record as illogical.
The statement reads, “The attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has been drawn to a report by an online publication, Peoples Gazette, alleging that Mr Adulrasheed Bawa, the Chairman-designate of the Commission, was arrested and detained by the agency under former Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, over illegal sale of 244 forfeited trucks to proxies in Port Harcourt.
“The publication claims that the illegal sale was uncovered by the suspended Secretary to the Commission, Ola Olukoyede, who alerted the former chairman, Ibrahim Magu, leading to Bawa’s detention and subsequent redeployment to the EFCC Academy, Abuja.“The Commission wishes to state categorically that Mr Bawa was never arrested or detained over the sale of any assets.
“As Zonal Head of the Port Harcourt Office of the Commission in 2019, Bawa’s responsibilities did not include the sale of assets as the commission has a full-fledged Directorate of Assets Forfeiture and Recovery Management, which remit such matters.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the disposal of finally forfeited trucks in the Port Harcourt Zonal Office through a public auction was conducted after the exit of Bawa as Zonal Head.
“It is therefore illogical for him to have been indicted over an auction that was not superintended by him.
“The auction of trucks at the Port Harcourt Office was among the issues examined by the Justice Ayo Salami Panel, leading to the suspension of some officers of the commission. The commission, therefore, enjoins the public to disregard the false publication which is believed to be sponsored by mischief makers to impugn the integrity of the EFCC chairman-designate.”
The diversion of 224 forfeited trucks was one of the allegations levelled against the embattled EFCC chairman Ibrahim Magu. Bawa reportedly appeared before the panel probing Mr Magu but denied involvement in the auction of the assets, saying it was supervised by a different department.
