By Haruna Salami
The Senate at plenary Wednesday confirmed the nomination of Abdulrasheed Bawa for appointment as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
This was after a rigorous question and answer session where Bawa was asked many questions on how he intends to reposition the anti grafts agency.
In his response to most of the questions, Bawa said he intends “to lead by example, to be more transparent, more accountable and rely on more technology” in the fight against corruption.
“We need to build the capacity of our human resources by reorganizing our academy and building synergy with sister agencies” adding that “EFCC is not a lone ranger”.
Specifically responding to a question asked by Senator Ali Ndume on how he intends to contend with the absence of “Unexplained Wealth Order/Act”, without which fighting corruption is like scratching the surface, Bawa said the EFCC Act (2003) has given the agency enough powers to investigate any property which, in the opinion of EFCC is beyond the income of the owner, even when there is no petition from any quarters.
On the sale of forfeited or seized assets, Bawa said the Executive Chairman of EFCC has no power to dispose of any asset as that power resides with the Secretary.
Senator Oluremi Tinubu, who congratulated Bawa for being eminently qualified, offered what she called motherly advice: “you are going to wear big shoes, temptations will come, I urge your wife to pray for you just as I would for you too”.
Senator Abdu Kwari, in his remarks simply asked the Chairman to embark on “self-cleansing of the EFCC”.
Senate President, Ahmad Lawan congratulated the new Chairman. He said the confirmation was sequel to the request of President Mugammadu Buhari in accordance with Section 2 (3) of the EFCC Act(2003).
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