The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa last night was suspended from office by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to allow for “proper investigation into his conduct while in office.” and was immediately Immediately invited by Department of State Services (DSS) for interrogation.
It was learnt that he arrived the headquarters of DSS at about 9:02pm.
A source said he was already being grilled at the facility popularly called “Yellow House” over his alleged activities when he held sway in the commission.
The spokesman of the DSS, Peter Afunanya confirmed Bawa’s presence.
“Bawa arrived a few hours ago. The invitation relates to some investigative activities concerning him”, Afunanya said in terse statement.
How Bawa was suspended
Bawa’s suspension was contained in a statement from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) and signed by the Director, Information, OSGF, Willie Bassey on Wednesday night.
“This (suspension) follows weighty allegations of abuse of office levelled against him,” the statement said.
Even though none of the allegations was mentioned in the statement, credible sources told the Daily Trust that besides other reasons, President Tinubu and those around him were angered by the role played by Bawa in the naira redesign policy of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
While the naira redesign and cashless policy were meant to address monetary and fiscal issues, Tinubu and others said the timing was wrong and targeted at them to lose the election.
Recall that Bawa had a few months ago said that he was privy to the naira issues.
In a separate interview with Daily Trust, he had said many politicians had amassed billions of naira outside the banking sector. He said following the naira redesign policy, some governors had made moves to pay salaries in cash in order to dispose of the old naira notes.
His suspension comes less than a week after Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), was also suspended on June 9 by the president, who ordered a probe of the apex bank.
____
Follow us on Twitter at @thesignalng
Copyright 2023 SIGNAL. Permission to use portions of this article is granted provided appropriate credits are given to www.signalng.com and other relevant sources.
