The suspended chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, has been in the custody of Nigeria’s domestic intelligence agency, the State Security Service (SSS), for over two months.
President Bola Tinubu suspended Mr Bawa from office on 14 June, and since then, the SSS has kept him in detention without explaining what his offences are and which law permits it to hold him for this long without charge.
On the authority of Mr Tinubu, the SSS has now held Mr Bawa in detention for 76 days – about two months and two weeks – without charge.
Conversely, within that period, Mr Tinubu rewarded former Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State, who was being investigated by the Bawa-led EFCC for allegedly diverting his state’s N70 billion, with a ministerial appointment. Another former governor, Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State, who helped to launder late Nigeria’s kleptocratic dictator Sani Abacha’s loot, will also join Mr Matawalle in Mr Tinubu’s cabinet as a minister.
While the ministerial screening was going on, Mr Tinubu also made a push for former Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, despite his unresolved videoed bribery scandal, to become the chairperson of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). Mr Ganduje is now the face of the change-promising party that came to power in 2015, vowing to fight corruption.
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Many Nigerians believe it is a new height of idolising the suspects and vilifying the investigators by the Nigerian government. It began early in the Tinubu administration with the strong support Mr Tinubu gave former Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State to emerge as the Senate President in June despite his long-existing corruption allegations.
The immediate-past administration of then President Muhammadu Buhari had overlooked EFCC’s ongoing investigation of N108 billion allegations against Mr Akpabio to award him a ministerial appointment. Conversely, instigated by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, the Buhari administration ended up humiliating then EFCC chairperson, Ibrahim Magu, out of office by subjecting him to a controversial probe, whose report remains a secret to date.
Mr Bawa’s case is also treading that path: apart from SSS’s terse statement announcing that Mr Bawa had surrendered himself for probe, no one is certain of what he is being investigated for after 76 days of his arrest.
“The invitation relates to some investigative activities concerning him (Mr Bawa),” Peter Afunanya, the spokesperson of SSS, said in a tweet on the night of Mr Bawa’s detention. And that is all any official source has said about Mr Bawa’s case for over two months.
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