“Farida Waziri Has No Plan Of Resigning” - EFCC

Huhuonline.com can disclose that Farida Waziri,chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has no plans of stepping down. At least not until 2012, when her tenure elapses. This clarification became necessary in light of a bogus

media advisory currently in circulation, which opined that Mrs. Farida Waziri had contemplated resigning as the czar of the anti-corruption agency over alleged interference by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr.Mohammed Bello Adoke.

Mr. Femi Babafemi, spokesman for EFFC, whom the statement was attributed to, has distanced himself, saying that the statement was “fake” and that the authors may have cloned his email”.

Here him:

“The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has described as cheap blackmail and an act of desperation by disgruntled elements a widely circulated statement credited to the anti-graft agency in which spurious and ridiculous allegations were made against the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN as well as the EFCC Chairman, Mrs Farida Waziri”.

“A statement by the Commission on Tuesday November 16, 2010 accused those behind the fake statement of cloning the e-mail address of the Commission's spokesman, Femi Babafemi and using same to send their own statement to media organizations including on-line publications some of which had already published the so-called statement which was written in bad language and taste”.

“The Commission wishes to disown the statement in its entirety and urge all those that may have received it as well as the general public to disregard it as it is not in any way related to the reality of things on ground in the EFCC”.

"The statement is just one of the numerous antics of crooks to set the office of the AGF against the EFCC in their desperate bid to cause confusion and disaffection between the two personalities heading the two public offices. They have tried this before now by sponsoring various publications attacking either the AGF or the EFCC chairman as a ploy to create the impression that such publications were sponsored by either of the two officials against the other”.

"We wish to assure the masterminds of this criminal act that this is yet another of their failed plots to want to escape justice using all manner of crooked means. If they have failed to deter us from continuing their investigation and prosecution by killing and maiming our officials, sending of bomb threats and others, then their latest antic of trying to set the AGF against the EFCC will equally fail”.

"We wish to emphasize that the EFCC chairman is not contemplating resigning her appointment on a non-existent ground that the AGF is interfering with the work of the Commission. The support of the AGF for the anti-graft agency has in no small measure helped to facilitate the recent successes recorded in the war against corruption especially some high profile convictions recorded by the EFCC”.

"We also wish to assure the criminal minds behind the latest plot that we will continue to work with other security agencies to trail and track them no matter who they are", the statement stated”.

Bogus Press Statement: Linked To Chris Oyakhilome`s Newspaper (National Daily)

Earlier, National Daily, a publication owned by Chris Oyakhilome, the controversial head pastor of Christ Embassy Ministry, published a story captioned: “Farida Waziri battles AGF Adoke, Pays Aondoakaa N1.3 billion Monthly”. The poorly worded, fabricated statement, which was a joinder to the aforementioned story reads:

Farida Waziri battles AGF Adoke, Pays Aondoakaa N1.3 billion Monthly - Rejoinder

The Attention of the Economic and Financial Commission, EFCC has been drawn to the recent publication in The National Daily Newspaper, posted on the Sahara reporter’s website. In the said publication, it was alleged that the Chairman of the EFCC, Mrs. Farida Waziri and the Honourable Attorney General and Minister for Justice are at war, and that the AGF wrote a memo accusing the leadership of the commission of ineptitude in the handling of petition amongst others.

The Farida same publication also accused Mrs. Farida Waziri of paying the sum of N1.3 billion to the former Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa. These accusations are baseless and sponsored by the enemies of the EFCC, however it is pertinent to put the record straight.

Mrs. Waziri’s relationship with Mr. Adoke remains cordial, but the EFCC will not entertain any tele-guiding of its activities by the AGF’s office or any agency of Government.In recent times the office of the AGF has waded into the commission’s activities thereby scuttling its prosecutions. These intrusions are not in the best interest on the fight against corruption.

The activities of the AGF office are embarrassing to the commission and have brought us in bad light to the public perception on the fight against corruption. It has made the commission to lose its focus.

Our recently published Advisory List was highly condemned by the AGF in a letter it wrote to the commission.

It is worthy to note that the EFCC lose of focus is as a result of the intrusion of the AGF office, which has made The Chairman of the Commission, Mrs. Farida Waziri to contemplate resigning from the job.

We urge the public to continue to support the fight against corruption.