👤 EXCLUSIVE: Adenike Lucas and Abdul Tukur, DENISAURUS News
Abdulrasheed Bawa, 43, was the youngest chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.Â
He was also the first core staff to attain a position, which was most often held by serving or retired policemen. The other past chairmen were, Nuhu Ribadu, Farida Waziri, Ibrahim Lamorde and then Ibrahim Mustafa Magu.
Mama Waiziri as she is fondly known retired as an Assistant Inspector-General of Police, likewise Ibrahim Magu and Lamorde.
Bawa, like his other predecessors, was sacked from office.
In his own case, there are allegations of abuse of office, which DENISAURUS News has confirmed to be use of fronts and nepotism.
DENISAURUS News investigation found that Bawa’s cabal were using the Chairman Monitoring Unit, CMU to extort Politically Exposed Persons.
This paper, reported exclusively about various issues of corruption ravishing the anti-corruption agency from the time of Ibrahim Mustafa Magu.
Some of this reports includes the exclusive report of Nigeria’s suspension from EGMONT and many others, which has created a range of sources for the paper to call on to over the years.
This paper has been informed that the President has directed the current acting chairman to disband the Chairman Monitoring Unit.
According to the source, “in compliance to such order, the acting Chairman Abdul Karim Chukkol has dissolved it and also directed all members in the team to be investigated right from inception of the said Unit.”
DENISAURUS News contacted the spokesperson to the EFCC to confirm the news, but he did not pick up.
Sources within the commission revealed that Bawa has made millions of Naira from cases he is investigating in the CMU, Lands, AFIS and CTGI.
A source said “Shehu Muhammed Ala and Mahmoud Tukur are the ones handling the CMU, where highly placed politicians and BH business tycoons are being investigated. That his boys are of the habits of harassing suspects and at the extort huge amount of money from them.”
“Other staff fronting or collecting kick back for Bawa include Rufa’i Zaki, Sambo Mayana erstwhile Deputy Chief of staff, Ngunan Kakwagh, his PA among others,” the source added.
It is been just two weeks since Abdurasheed Bawa, the EFCC Chairman was indefinitely suspended by President Bola Tinubu. The president at the time called for an investigation into the period he spent in office, but not much was shared to the public since then.
An official statement noted that Bawa had abused his office.
Information from a reliable source close to the embattled Chairman revealed that Bawa while in office “has amassed too much wealth in cash, plot of lands, buildings, auto business, farming and Bureau de change among others.”
He is said to have been “gifting cars to his friends and a lady he seeing is now superbly rich.”
Information at our disposal also revealed Bawa is building a mansion estimated at 1.2 Billion Naira at Clapperton Street, Sokoto.
The source also notes that Bawa has acquired many houses in places like Kano, which was one of the properties auctioned by the commission recently.
“All his belongings both cash and landed properties are been controlled by a closed relative of Bawa,” DENISAURUS News was reliably informed.
Further investigation by a whistle-blower has unearthed the name of the person fronting Bawa’s assets and businesses ranging from “Plazas/Mall, Mansion and plots of land in Abuja, Kaduna, Kano and Sokoto,” however, the name remains confidential.
In a related development, the sacked EFCC Chairman, as part of his act of nepotism is said to have employed a relative of his wife, who recently graduated with his doctorate degree from a Malaysia University. Bawa made the man an Assistant Director, but many believe the person doesn’t have any knowledge of EFCC or public service.
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