About an hour ago President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced indefinitely suspended the Chairman of the anti graft agency .
A statement by the Director of Information, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Willie Bassey, on Wednesday.
Bawa was, however, directed to immediately handover to the Director, Operations in the Commission pending the conclusion of the investigation.
The statement read, “President Tinubu has approved the indefinite suspension from office of AbdulRasheed Bawa, CON, as the Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to allow for proper investigation into his conduct while in office. This follows weighty allegations of abuse of office levelled against him.
“Mr Bawa has been directed to immediately handover the affairs of his office to the Director, Operations in the Commission, who will oversee the affairs of the Office of the Chairman of the Commission pending the conclusion of the investigation.”
He said “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 would be a disorganised society.
“This would 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. This is not expected of a born-again democrat that our President now claims to be. For how long will our President allow impunity to govern our society before he knows that he has to exercise his enormous power to insist that the rule of law that he has relied upon over the years holds sway?
“Those in authority are duty-bound to ensure that judgements of any court, even if by a drunken judge, are implemented by the Police Force. And if the Police Force 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. If the President also refuses to insist that the rule of law should be held sacrosanct, then there would be protests without end.
“We will continue until the rule of law is obeyed. Everybody should be equal before the law.”
Spokesperson for the Transparency and Accountability Group, Ayodeji Ologun, noted that in spite of pressure from different quarters, patriotic activists have refused to be bought over in their struggle.
According to him, “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 have Bawa heading that agency.