Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, on Wednesday, said the EFCC lied when it denied it bestowed on him the title of Anti – Corruption Ambassador.
Ekweremadu in a statement by his Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, Mr. Uche Anichukwu, said the EFCC denial was most unfortunate.
The statement reads, ” We want to put it on record that the EFCC Liaison Officer to the National Assembly, Mr. Suleiman Bakari, and his team, applied for and subsequently paid a courtesy call on the Deputy President of the Senate in his Office on Tuesday, April 19, 2016.
“Mr. Bakari, amongst other issues he raised, solicited the support of the Senate and National Assembly towards the anti-corruption crusade of the present administration, and even presented a frame with a bold picture of President Muhammadu Buhari, bearing the inscription: “If we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria”.
“Mr. Bakari also, on behalf of the Acting Chairman, management, and staff of the EFCC decorated Senator Ekweremadu as an Anti-Corruption Ambassador of the EFCC.
“It is also a fact that the visit and decoration was captured in both pictures and video.”
It added,”We wish to refer him (Uwujaren,) to December 7, 2007, when the Nuhu Ribadu-led EFCC conferred the Role Model Award in the Fight Against Corruption, on certain persons, including a former President of the Senate; a taxi driver; and a former Justice of the Federal High Court at the Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja.”
It said, “Taking cognisance of the command structure of the agency, we also wonder whether Mr. Bakari could have acted on his own or read from a prepared text without recourse to the Commission, which he represents, especially as the visit and decoration was never solicited for in the first place.”