Former President Olusegun Obasanjo
Former
President Olusegun Obasanjo has said the appointment of Mrs. Farida
Waziri as the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
slowed down the fight against corruption in the country.
Obasanjo, in an exclusive interview he granted Zero Tolerance,
a magazine published by the EFCC, said Waziri was a wrong successor to
Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the pioneer chairman of the anti-graft agency.
The former President, whose
administration established the EFCC and the Independent Corrupt
Practices and Other-Related Offences Commission, added that he was
aware that convicted former Delta State Governor, James Ibori, played a
major role in her appointment.
He said, “I know that the woman they
brought in to replace Ribadu was not the right person for that job
because I understood that one of those who head-hunted her was Ibori.
If Ibori, who is now in a UK (United Kingdom) prison for fraud,
head-hunts somebody who will fight corruption in Nigeria, then you can
understand what happened.”
To butress his argument that Waziri
was a wrong person for the job, he challenged the publication to “go and
look at her track record.”
“Go and look at the condition or the
qualification; go and look at the type of interaction that anybody
holding that job will have with a similar organisation elsewhere; did
Waziri have that type. What connection did she have with the FBI, what
relationship did she have with Metropolitan Police in London. It’s not a
picnic,”Obasanjo added.
Waziri, a retired senior police officer,
was appointed head of the EFCC in 2008 after the controversial exit of
Ribadu, who was also a former police officer.
Obasanjo commended Ribadu, saying his
performance as the EFCC boss helped reduce corruption in Nigeria and
improved her rating by the Transparency International.
He said, “When I was there, the EFCC and
ICPC worked tirelessly and we moved this country from the corruption
perception index being number two from the lowest to number 45 from the
lowest. We should have graduated from being number 45 to being number 50
to being number 60, to being number 100. But we are not doing that,
rather we have started sliding down.”
The former President flayed the manner
Ribadu was removed from office, saying he cautioned the late President
Umaru Yar’Adua against his removal.
Obasanjo said if given the opportunity
again, “I will reappoint Mallam Ribadu and I will not dismiss him the
way he was dismissed from the EFCC.”
He, however, criticised Ribadu for hobnobbing “with people he had declared as corrupt.”
Asked to rate the incumbent EFCC
Chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, on the fight against corruption, Obasanjo,
said he did not know how to score him.
But he recalled that Lamorde was directly involved when he requested the anti-graft agency to investigate him.
He said, “I was investigated. I told
the EFCC to investigate me. I told the EFCC to carry out clinical
investigation and they did.
“They also did same with all people on
my farm. One of them was telling me the other day how Lamorde called him
three times and took statements from him. The EFCC even made sure they
did not submit that report to me; they waited until I left and updated
their report after going round the world and saying look this is the
report. Nobody should be below board in the fight against corruption.”
The Egba chief also expressed
concerns about the perceived corruption in the judiciary, saying it
required the efforts of all Nigerians to check the trend.
In a separate interview with Zero Tolerance, Waziri denied that Ibori supported her appointment as the EFCC chairman.
She said, “I never knew him. I never knew James Ibori.
“Let me ask you, if I was in league
with Ibori and was not sincerely pursuing him, would he have run, gone
out of this country to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates?
“It is all lies of the enemies. By the
time I write my book, the truth will prevail. I never knew Ibori; look
I believe what is worth doing at all is worth doing well. I don’t
believe in half measures. By my training and upbringing, I can never
betray my country for anyone.”
Justifying her appointment, Waziri said she secured the first conviction in the history of the EFCC.
“N190bn, one single recovery from one
person that went to jail was during Farida Waziri. That is why it is
good to have changes in an organisation”, she added.
Waziri faulted the manner she was sacked
by the Goodluck Jonathan administration despite committing more than
30 years to serving the nation.
She said she learnt of her removal
in November 2011 in the news media and stated that she did not deserve
the humiliation since she had not been found wanting for any
misdemeanour.
“If you are removed like that, it has a
tendency to scare some people. I wasn’t bothered that I left because my
philosophy of life is simple, ‘what has a beginning has an end,’’
Waziri said.
Meanwhile, the EFCC has said that it secured 80 convictions in eight months.
The 80 were part of the 368 cases charged to court.
In a statement by its Acting Head of
Media and Publicity, Wilson Uwujaren, the commission said it had also
recovered N6,583,108,350 ; $19,251,519; 20,520 Euros and £19,000.
“Beyond the recovery, the EFCC
intensified the prosecution of politically-exposed persons, failed bank
executives, captains of industry, beneficiaries of fraudulent oil
subsidy payments and senior civil servants involved in pension fraud.
“A number of cases for which
investigations have been concluded, would be charged to courts across
the zones where the Commission maintains offices as soon as the courts
resume from recess.
“The commission deplored attempts by
mischievous elements to distract it by imputing political motives to
some of its investigations.”
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