Date Published: 03/18/10

“Sponsored Attacks Won’t Distract Us”----EFCC

It has become expedient again to alert the public about the sinister moves of some disgruntled elements, who curiously and ridiculously, have been congregating and mobilizing funds secretly under the aegis of “Group of Accused Persons” to launch series of attacks against the Economic and Financial Crimes commission, EFCC and its leadership.

The group which comprises mainly some of those that are either being prosecuted or investigated by the EFCC has in the past two weeks been mobilizing funds with a target of N250 million to launch a reprisal attack on the Commission and its leadership for daring to touch them.

Information available to us indicates that the group’s activities are being coordinated by a National Lawmaker who is equally being prosecuted in a court in Abuja by the EFCC. This particular individual has gone so desperately to the extent of offering as much as N 6 million each to television stations to sponsor some sets of hirelings to appear on some discussion programmes on these stations for the sole aim of attacking and making spurious allegations against the Commission and its leadership.

Besides that, they have released funds to their agents to run advertorials in the newspapers and for other sponsored publications in a bid to distract the Commission by engaging us in a media war.

Since they know they are jail-bound at the conclusion of their trial, and faced with the reality that  government and major stakeholders are now working towards fast tracking the process of adjudication on corruption cases, this team of bed fellows has come to a conclusion that relief can only come their way if they succeed in rocking the stability in EFCC. Their calculation is that if they succeed in distracting us, then their trial will be delayed to a point that they will be eligible to stand for election in the 2011 polls.

It is also necessary to let the public know that the spurious allegations by a member of their club, Victor Osita Uwajeh are all they have packaged together as their launch pad.

We have since refused to dignify Uwajeh by joining issues with him because he is just one out of other fraudsters being prosecuted by the Commission.

We however want to assure them that their conspiracy or gang up stands no chance to rock the stability of the Commission or distract us for a day. They also need to be reminded that the fact that they are already facing some criminal charges does not mean they are off our watch list as we are still very much on their trail and will not hesitate to arrest and press fresh charges against them if they infringe on the laws of the land in their desperate bid to mobilize ill-gotten funds to launch campaigns of calumny against the Commission and its leadership.

For the benefit of those of us that have not seen a copy of our earlier statement on Uwajeh, I will reproduce same below:

The Facts About Victor Uwajeh
 
i.   It is true that Victor Uwajeh started coming to the EFCC in 2008 to give information just like hundreds of other Nigerians who have been supporting the work of the Commission with information and documentary evidence. Between October and November 2008, the accused person came up with a request that he needed a covering letter to enable him procure some documents for the Commission outside the country. As such, the letter was given to him but with a provision that if he cannot produce any documentary evidence within a space of six months, the letter would no longer be valid or tenable for assistance anywhere.
 
ii.   It is worthy to note that this letter is not a secret document but a public one because the EFCC has since January 2010 when Uwajeh was arraigned before an FCT High Court Gudu, Abuja , attached the letter as part of proof of evidence to the charge sheet.
 
iii.   Please note that there was nowhere in the letter where Uwajeh was referred to as a staff of the EFCC. Again, going by the date on the letter, it seized to be a tenable document since April, 2009.
 
iv.     As it was later discovered, Uwajeh had gone out to print complimentary cards parading himself as a staff of the EFCC and using same to extort money from people. Apart from this, he equally printed EFCC letterhead papers for his criminal use. All these and others such as the Commission’s acknowledgement stamp were recovered from his house when he was arrested.
 
v.       Following reports that Uwajeh has been going round presenting himself as a staff of the EFCC, a team of operatives was detailed to trail him and investigate his activities with a view to getting specific evidence that could lead to his successful prosecution.
 
vi.   Their efforts led to his arrest and a search on his house on January 13, 2010. Same day, the Commission issued a statement on his arrest. The whole essence of that was to alert the public that Uwajeh has never been a staff of the EFCC and also encourage those that might have been his victim to come forward with information and evidence. As a result, the accused was detained for about two weeks on the order of an Abuja court.
 
vii.    Satisfied that there was enough evidence to prosecute Uwajeh successfully, the Commission charged him to court on January 28, 2010, on a four count charge bordering on impersonation and extortion. The court same day remanded Uwajeh in prison custody till March 4 when his bail application was considered.
 
viii.   Based on results of investigation on Uwajeh’s activities, the Commission had reasons to believe that his sudden wealth must be proceeds of crime and as such, EFCC filed for the forfeiture of the five assorted vehicles recovered from his house in addition to seizure of his other assets and bank accounts.
 
ix.   While the trial Judge granted the Commission’s forfeiture application, she equally granted the accused bail in the sum of N5 million and two sureties in like sum.
 
x.   Faced with the consequence of his dubious actions, Uwajeh has left no one in doubt that he would be all out to seek for means of blackmailing the EFCC and its leadership. If indeed Uwajeh is sure of his tales, his trial in an open court has provided him an opportunity to prove his innocence.
 
xi. We are amazed that Uwajeh has been going round claiming we owe him 18 million British Pounds for investigating 72 cases including those of Chief Olabode George, Nasir El-Rufai and Lucky Igbinendon. All these are blatant lies and we urge him to list all these 72 cases, produce his investigation reports on them and take us to court for claims. The three cases cited above had all been investigated before Waziri came on board while Igbinendon’s case was already in court.
 
xii.    Let me emphasize that hundreds of informants assist the EFCC with information on a daily basis while the Commission on its part provides cover for them when necessary. They don’t go out to parade themselves as officials of the EFCC not to talk of abusing the privilege to extort money from unsuspecting members of the public.
 
Femi Babafemi
Head, Media & Publicity
March 18, 2010