CAMPAIGN Of CALUMNY AGAINST HARD WORKING EFCC OFFICER

CAMPAIGN Of CALUMNY AGAINST HARD WORKING EFCC OFFICER

As a watchdog in the anti- corruptuion corridor, the Anti Corruption Crusader Network has watched with great shock how a provenly hard working senior officer of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, was attacked unfairly and maliciously by a faceless group raised by a well- known Mr Fix It within the Commission, all in an attempt to settle some scores and fight for relevance.

There was a publication a few weeks ago captioned “Senior EFCC officer faces allegation of abuse of office and unexplained wealth” by one faceless Adediji Sunday Ajala, who claimed to be the president of the NJA.

First, NJA stands for Network for Justice Association. This association is unknown to law, and the supposed Sunday Adediji Ajala does not exist. That being said, this petitioner is not a staff member of the EFCC, and I am sure he does not know the senior officer being accused.

This shows there are insiders within the EFCC who know the agency’s inner workings and its personnel. This write-up is their handiwork, and they have been identified.

First of all, the Anti Corruption Crusaders Network knows the nitty-gritty of the EFCC’s operational system. As we all know, every organization has a hierarchy from top to bottom.

The head of any organization can delegate duties and assignments to anyone they trust and have confidence in. Furthermore, in most organizations, operations are conducted on a “need-to-know” basis.

Take the EFCC for example. In the aforementioned allegation and write-up, one of their primary grievances is that the chain of hierarchy was broken—claiming the senior officer bypassed the Director of Investigation to obtain approval directly from the Chairman.

Let us take a moment to ask: what if the person who was bypassed had been sabotaging the EFCC’s work, and management took this step to protect the integrity of the investigation? Besides, how would an outsider even be privy to such internal details?
They accuse the officer of approving petitions, along with several other frivolous and baseless allegations that cannot be proven. It reveals that certain individuals within the organization believe its leadership is their birthright. A few years ago on the Senate floor, a Senator from Delta State pointed out that since the creation of the EFCC, only a specific group of people had ever headed the agency. Now that someone from another region is heading it for the first time, this selfish group—believing the position belongs to them—is bent on destroying the organization. That is the real motive behind this write-up.

They keep claiming they have a voice recording. Why not simply release it? As for the alleged recording, it was likely obtained by an internal staff member who secretly recorded colleagues and passed the audio to a top-ranking officer. That officer is so shameless that he leaks weekly briefings to a prominent governor from the East regarding the EFCC’s internal activities—what happened and what did not—all for financial gain.

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This same officer is on the payroll of a company known to most EFCC staff. He perverted justice by sitting on case files and preventing proper procedures from being followed. Furthermore, he is alleged to own real estate properties, and an investigation into that matter has already commenced.

It is sad that the very people who warn junior officers against spreading rumors, leaking official information, or feeding false reports to outsiders are doing the exact same thing themselves. I am confident the system will not allow them to go unpunished.

One of the disgruntled followers of this senior officer is a shameless character who should not have been an EFCC staff member in the first place. He has been a malingerer for years, and now that he has been reassigned to his proper place, he is fighting a lost battle.

According to our investigation, this officer is also deeply corrupt. In one particular case he handled, it was just him and the case file. I know how the EFCC operates—they work in teams. Yet nobody else was allowed to touch that file, and he used it to extort money from numerous individuals. Among his victims is a London-based lady who has been contacted and is willing to step forward, as well as another individual based in Lagos.

During that case, the officer met with external parties and instructed the suspect to sell a property worth over 600 million Naira. Instead of channeling the proceeds through official channels, he demanded the money be paid directly to certain individuals, keeping nearly 80 million Naira for himself as a kickback.

We are keenly watching developments in the Commission. The senior officer is enjoined to keep up his professional pedigree and refuse to be intimidated by anyone. We, as a credible organisation, will continue to project the good works Mr. Ola Olukoyede is doing. No particular tribe has a right of monopoly to the leadership of EFCC. All the tissue of lies raised against the senior officer cannot stand because there is no iota of truth in them. We urge the Mr. Olukoyede to identify those raising falsehood and campaign of calumny against the innocent officer and make them prove the rubbish they sent out.