Abdulrasheed Bawa has been appointed the new chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) by the Senate.
The decision was made following a two-hour screening exercise in the plenary which was presided over by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan. The sittings saw Bawa answer various questions concerning “past experiences, his relationship with his predecessors as well as his plans for the new position he has been appointed for” from about 15 lawmakers.
According to Premium Times, Bawa denied the accusation that he sold properties that were seized during his tenure as head of EFCC’s Port Harcourt office during the screening, saying that he had a “good relationship with his predecessors”.
This comes a week after President Muhammadu Buhari in a statement, via his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity Femi Adesina, nominated Abdulrasheed Bawa, the new Chairman of the EFCC and requested the Senate to confirm Bawa’s nomination as EFCC boss.
This appointment makes Bawa the youngest chairman of the EFCC as well as the first EFCC chairperson who was not previously a police officer.
The Personal Assistant on New Media to the president, Bashir Ahmad also, on Twitter described 40-year-old Bawa as “a trained EFCC investigator with vast experience in the investigation and prosecution of Advance Fee Fraud cases, official corruption, bank fraud, laundering & other economic crimes.”
Bawa who was formerly zonal head of the anti-graft agency will now replace Mohammed Umar who has been acting chairman of the EFCC since the suspension of Ibrahim Magu over corruption allegations in 2020.
According to Premium Times, here are five facts about the new chairman:
- Abdulrasheed Bawa is a graduate from the Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics (Second Class Upper) in 2001.
- He joined the EFCC as an Assistant Detective Superintendent (ADS) in 2004.
- He holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs and Diplomacy which he obtained from the same university in 2012.
- According to his resume as seen by Premium Times, he spent about 16 years working with the EFCC as a detective and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of London.
- He was part of the pioneer EFCC Cadet Officers, course one, 2005, as he rose through the ranks to become a Deputy Chief Detective Superindent (DCDS), a position he has been holding since 2016 up till the time of his nomination as the anti-graft agency’s substantive chairman.
- He has vast investigation experience and has been part of the prosecution of advance fee fraud, official corruption, bank fraud, money laundering, and other economic and financial crimes related offences.
- He headed the investigations of Crude Oil Swaps and OPA case from 2014 to2015, also leading to the recovery of assets.
- As the head of the EFCC’s investigations of Diezani Allison-Madueke from 2015 till date, his team recovered millions of dollars worth of property in Nigeria, the U.K., U.S.A, and U.A.E including 92 of such assets in Nigeria.
- He also supervised the investigations of Atlantic Energy Group-from 2014 to 2015 leading to the recovery of assets in Nigeria, the UK, USA, Switzerland, UAE and Canada.
- He has also participated in several other periodic raids on “notorious (419) Cyber-cafés”, the sort of operations from which the EFCC records the lion share of its convictions.
