By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has refuted claims that its chairman, Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa, had a meeting with the former chairman of the defunct Skye Bank Plc, Mr Tunde Ayeni, to strike a deal concerning the latter’s investigation into some allegations of fraud.
In a statement signed on Friday by the spokesman of the agency, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, it was stated that such meeting did not take place as reported in the media.
The organisation disclosed that it would not be deterred in carrying out its duties.
It was reported that Mr Bawa and the former banker travelled together to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to make an agreement on how the investigation into Mr Ayeni could be dropped, but the EFCC described this as false.
“The attention of the commission has been drawn to a so-called exclusive news report making the rounds on social media to the effect that the EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa and former Chairman of the defunct Skye Bank, Mr Tunde Ayeni, are travelling together, abroad, on a clandestine, self-serving mission.
“The story, which vainly tries to push a certain malodorous agenda, is absolutely FALSE.
“If it were not for its potential to confound and confuse the unwary, the commission would have ignored the story. However, there is every need to set the facts straight.
“To start with, there was never a meeting and certainly no “plan” between the EFCC Chair and Mr Ayeni to go anywhere together.
“Furthermore, while the EFCC Chairman is at this time on an approved mission abroad, Ayeni, whom the fiction-turned-news story says is on a clandestine trip with Mr Bawa, is, from checks, right here in Nigeria. A cursory check would have confirmed that.
“If the design is to get the Commission to compromise its mandate to investigate and prosecute all cases of economic and financial crimes, then the purveyors of the tendentious story have failed woefully.
“No matter what, the commission will be guided only by that mandate and its very clear Standard Operating Procedure and WILL NOT be blackmailed or act in any way predetermined or teleguided by private interests. The EFCC WILL ONLY pursue the public interest as defined by the law establishing the commission,” the statement said.
Adedapo Adesanya