Restore professionalism in EFCC, PDP charges Bawa

By Ayo Fadimu

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has charged the new Chairman of the  Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulraheed Bawa, to  re-engineer and restore professionalism in the anti-graft agency.

The party  in a statement signed by the National Publicity secretary of the party, Kola Ologbodiyan urged Bawa to avoid the pitfalls of his immediate predecessor  in office, by resisting all partisan pressures to use the agency as a  tool for political persecution, harassment of dissenting voices,  settling of personal scores as well as for personal enrichment, as  witnessed under the last chairman.

“The  party notes that such tendencies eroded professionalism in the EFCC,  compromised its activities and diminished the public confidence with  regard to fairness, impartiality and even-handedness in the handling of  cases.”

The statement read in part “The new EFCC Chairman is reminded that the EFCC was articulated and  established by the PDP administration to fight corruption and not as a  tool for oppression and intimidation of innocent Nigerians for political  and other unjustified reasons. The PDP notes that for the first time, the Chairman of the EFCC is drawn  from the pool of trained investigators of the commission and Nigerians  expect the new chairman to bring the benefits of his training to bear by  sanitizing the system and restoring professionalism in line with  international best practices.”

“Furthermore, our party urges the new EFCC Chairman to bear in mind that,  given his young age and training, he should exhibit the ideals of the generation-Next Nigeria in  reciprocation of the confidence Nigerians repose in him,” the statement concluded.