By Adeyemi Adeleye
Frontline Anti-corruption Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) on Tuesday in Lagos, resumed calls for removal of Mr AbdulRasheed Bawa, Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged disregard to the rule of law.
The CSOs called for Bawa’s sack over alleged politicisation of the commission, disobedience of lawful court orders and infringement on human rights of Nigerians, among others.
The activists, who were joined in a news conference by over 20 Constitutional lawyers, led by Mr Kayode Mogbojuri of the Citizens Rights Advocacy Group, passed a vote- of-no-confidence on Bawa.
According to them, no amount of “purchased CSOs’ and “vote of confidence” by such CSOs will cover the truth about the alleged abnormalities being condoned in EFCC under its current leadership.
The spokesperson for the Coalition, Mr Olufemi Lawson, said that leaders in the “Bawa Must Go” struggle had remained resolute while more had joined in the interest of the rule of law.
Lawson, however, commended President Muhammadu Buhari for dissociating the Presidency from any act of disobedience to court orders and making the Central Bank of Nigeria comply with a Supreme Court order that extended the validity of old naira notes till Dec. 31.
“As this is expected to ease the pain of the masses, we hereby call on the President to also wade into the seeming fixation of the EFCC on certain individuals to score cheap political goals through unwarranted media trials of non-convicted individuals in the country.
“He (Buhari) should direct Bawa to step aside until he purges himself of contempt as ruled by a High Court,” the spokesperson said.
Also speaking, the Chairman, Centre for Anti-corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), Mr Debo Adeniran, noted that his organisation had, from the outset, alerted the National Assembly to the fact that Bawa was unfit over alleged corrupt practices.
According to him, Bawa’s alleged misconduct in office is a confirmation of CACOL’s fears of his being unfit for the position.
Adeniran, who made copies of CACOL’s initial objection to Bawa’s appointment available to the media, said, “Up till now, he (Bawa) has not cleared himself of all the allegations against him.
“He has been made to catch other people who committed offences that are not as grievous as the ones that he has been accused of.
“And on top of all of these, he has been behaving as if he is an authority to himself.
“And we are now saying that, no matter how highly placed you are, no matter how influential you are, you still are duty-bound to operate within the confines of the laws of our own country. That is the Constitution.
“Nobody is above the law. Everybody should be equal before the law. If we don’t allow the rule of law to govern our society, then we are plunging our society into that kingdom where anarchy rules, where there will be chaos and where there will be no control over who does what, and that will be a disorganised society.”
He said that Bawa had been convicted about two times for flagrant disobedience to court orders.
He added: “Gradually, other agencies will not want to obey the rule of law. This will only draw back the gains we have made over the years when we thought that we had struggled ourselves out of the stranglehold of the Military.”
Adeniran said that those in authority were duty-bound to ensure that judgments of any court are implemented by the Police Force.
“And if the police refuses to implement it, the President is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, he should call them to order, instruct the Inspector-General of Police to implement the order.
“We are just observing a break now as a result of the elections which we must all partake in. We will continue until the rule of law is obeyed. Everybody should be equal before the law,” the CACOL chairman said.
Speaking, the spokesperson for the Transparency and Accountability Group, Mr Ayodeji Ologun, decried that some organisations in the name of CSOs, were backing illegality.
Ologun said that in spite of pressure from different quarters, patriotic activists refused to be bought over.
“We are repeating that we are not against the fight against corruption. But if the successes of the EFCC must stay, we cannot continue to disregard lawful court orders.
NAN reports that Leaders of the anti-corruption CSOs that began the call for the removal of Bawa included the Chairman, Centre for Anti-corruption and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran; Executive Director, Zero Graft Centre, Kolawole Sanchez-Jude; Chairman, Coalition Against Corruption and Bad Governance, Toyin Raheem.
Others were the Executive Director, Centre for Public Accountability, Olufemi Lawson; Ahmed Balogun of Media Rights Concern, Ologun Ayodeji,
Transparency and Accountability Group; Declan Ihehaire, Activists for Good Governance; Ochiaga Jude, Centre for Ethics and Good Governance, among many others and constitutional lawyers. (NAN)
