Ogona Anita
Abdulrasheed Bawa, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has asked Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State to provide evidence of corruption against him.
The anti-graft czar said this while responding to numerous allegations that the governor levelled against him.
Matawalle had called for the resignation of the EFCC chairman, whom he said had questions to answer on corruption issues. In a statement he personally signed on Wednesday, the governor accused Bawa of corruptly enriching himself while asking the anti -graft boss to excuse himself and surrender for investigation.
He appealed to the federal government to probe Bawa and the activities of the commission under him.
He had said: “I and some eminent Nigerians have evidence of corrupt practices, breach of public trust and abuse of office against him (Bawa) and the commission led by him.”
Subsequently, EFCC had said Matawalle was being investigated over allegations of corruption, award of phantom contracts and diversion of over N70 billion.
But during an interview with BBC Hausa, Bawa said that it would be beneficial for Matawalle to provide supporting evidence for his allegations.
“There is no human being who is 100% clean, I read somewhere he (Matawalle) asked us to extend our investigation to ministers. We carry out our investigations thoroughly and if Governor Matawalle has knowledge of any minister or governor involved in corrupt practices, he should report it to the appropriate authorities.
“If he has records of my purported corrupt practices, the appropriate channels for redress would be through reporting to the police, ICPC, and the Code of Conduct. Subsequently, investigations into such complaints would ensue.” Bawa said.
Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State has accused the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, of demanding $2 million bribe from him.
He made the allegation amid the growing rift between the governor and the anti-graft agency.
In a statement on Wednesday, Matawalle called for Bawa’s resignation, saying he had questions to answer on corruption. But the EFCC Chairman responded that he had nothing to hide and asked Matawalle to petition appropriate authorities if he had any evidence against him.
In an interview with BBC Hausa, Matawalle insisted that Bawa could not be trusted.
“It is not just to always blame governors. It is not only governors who have treasury, the federal government also has. What does the EFCC boss do to them? As he is claiming he has evidence on governors, let him show to the world evidence of those at the federal level.
“If he exits office, people will surely know he is not an honest person. I have evidence against him. Let him vacate office, I am telling you within 10 seconds probably more than 200 people will bring evidences of bribe he collected from them. He knows what he requested from me but I declined.
“He requested a bribe of $2 million from me and I have evidence of this. He knows the house we met, he invited me and told me the conditions. He told me governors were going to his office but I did not. If I don’t have evidence, I won’t say this.”
Contacted for reaction, Wilson Uwujaren, spokesman of the anti-graft agency, said he had not seen the story so he could not respond.
Told it was on BBC Hausa where Matawalle spoke, he said he could not speak Hausa and asked that the story link be sent for a response, but he had not responded at the time of filing this report.
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