Abdulrasheed Bawa, whose appointment was confirmed Wednesday by the Senate as the new Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has promised to lead with example and institutionalize a Standard Operating Procedure.
He also pledged that going forward, operations at the Commission would be digitized to enable it become more transparent and accountable, and particularly ensure that finally forfeited assets are disposed of immediately instead of leaving them dormant.
“What I envisage to do to reposition the EFCC, is to ensure that we work on our own standard operational procedure to improve on the standard operational procedures, so much so that all that is expected of us is to try as much as possible to curtail the usage of discretion from the office of the Executive Chairman down to the ordinary investigator in the EFCC,” Bawa noted while being screened by the Senate in Abuja.
With his confirmation, Bawa 40 becomes the fourth executive chairman of the 18 years old institution, and the first core staff of the Commission to occupy the office.
“We are looking forward to an EFCC, whereby if I give an instruction to a junior officer, he would look at my face and say, sir, I have understood your instruction but I won’t be able to do it, because of certain section of the rules or regulations governing the EFCC,” he added.
In his opening remarks before the Committee of the Whole, Bawa, assured Nigerians that he would deploy his experience as a certified fraud examiner, and anti-money laundering specialist in raising the bar under his watch at the EFCC.
He also disclosed his interest in establishing synergy with other law enforcement organizations, both nationally and internationally, and aggressively pursuing the repatriation of seized assets.
“I have talked on the issue of synergy between the EFCC and sister security agencies in the country as well as the work I envisage to do together with our foreign strategic partners. We are going to work on that, we are going to strengthen it. The EFCC is not a lone ranger, we are going to reach out. The job of fighting economic and financial crimes is for everybody to be on board, and we will ensure that because we don’t have monopoly of knowledge.”
The new EFCC Chairman equally expressed his desire to upgrade the skills of staff of the Commission through training, while also seeking the support of the lawmakers by way of appropriation.
Bawa whose appointment has raised some agitations in some quarters dispelled the allegation of illegally selling forfeited properties during his time as Head of the Port Harcourt Office of the Commission.
“I never sold a single truck at the Port Harcourt office, the head office handled that at the time.
“Anybody that is familiar with the processes of the EFCC knows that the chairman doesn’t have the power to sell an asset but the secretary of the agency. The former secretary and two directors came from the head office to conduct the sale”, he clarified.
The EFCC boss assured that he would live to the expectation of the appointing authorities and teeming Nigerian youths who now look up to him as a model and ambassador.
“I am not unaware of the fact that my nomination has caused a lot of hope for millions of youths around the country, I want to state here that I am going to give them a good representation in the governance of this country so that at the end of the day, more youths will be given huge responsibilities in this country.
Bawa who is a certified fraud examiner and member of the prestigious America -based Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, and a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist, has also been trained by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI and the UK National Crime Agency.
