The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has disowned the
Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu as the agency’s Anti-Corruption
Ambassador.
The EFCC said in a Press Statement that it statutory function is to
investigate financial crimes and not the conferment of awards.
In a statement dissociating the commission from the action, EFCC
Spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, claimed Bakari acted on his own as the
commission does not give awards but investigates economic and Financial
crimes.
Wilson said: “The attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, has been drawn to some reports in the print and online
media, on April 20, 2016, claiming that the anti-graft agency has
decorated the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, as “Anti-Corruption
Ambassador”.
“According to a statement issued to the Press by the Special Adviser to
the Deputy Senate President, Uche Anichukwu, the purported decoration, was
carried out by the EFCC National Assembly Liaison Officer, Suleiman Bakari
who was quoted to have said: “ On behalf of my acting chairman, Mr.
Ibrahim Mustafa Magu and the entire management and staff of the EFCC,
decorate you as an Anti-Corruption Ambassador and formally present this
frame, as a token of our appreciation to your person and office, and as a
symbol of the institutional partnership between the EFCC and the National
Assembly”.
“The EFCC totally dissociates itself from the purported action of Sulaiman
Bakari as he acted entirely on his own. “He clearly acted outside his
brief as a liaison officer as the management of the Commission at no time
mandated him to decorate Ekweremadu or any officer of the National
Assembly as Anti-Corruption Ambassador.
“The statutory mandate of the EFCC is the investigation and prosecution of
all economic and financial crimes cases, which does not include the
decoration of individuals as anti-corruption ambassadors.
“The Commission is not in the habit of awarding titles to individuals. And
those enamoured of titles, know the quarters to approach for such honours,
not the EFCC.
Members of the public and stakeholders in the fight against corruption are
enjoined to disregard the so-called decoration, Uwujaren said.