ABUJA- The Chairman of EFCC, Mrs. Farida Waziri, has said the Inspector General of Police and the Attorney-General of the Federation did not interfere with operation of the agency. Waziri made the declaration when Ms Doris Basler, the Programme Manager of Transparency International, visited the headquarters of the anti-graft agency.

She said the relationship with the I-G was based on the fact that the bulk of the officers and men of the Mobile Policemen, who work and provide security at the EFCC headquarters were drawn from the police.

“Having worked in the Nigeria Police Force, I have a personal knowledge of the officers and men. Based on this experience, I requested for the release of those with track records to us.”
“The IG-P does not, and cannot impose anybody on us,” she said. Waziri also said the Attorney General and Minister of Justice had a constitutional role in the affairs of the commission in the prosecution of those being charged to court.

“Prosecution is undertaken under his office and the charges are framed with the Federal Government against the person or the Attorney General against the person,” she explained.
The EFCC chief said given the peculiar circumstances of Nigerian culture with extended family system, “there have been challenges with appeals from several quarters when people are arrested”.

What we do is to look at the facts and evidence in doing our work.

“Indeed, this has been more straight forward because of the presidential emphases on the rule of law and due process,” she added.

She said EFCC had started investigations into the financial records of all the 774 local councils in the country. Waziri said the investigation was part of the ongoing efforts to sanitise government at the grassroots level and institute an enduring structure and integrity.

“The idea is to put in place preventive mechanisms in the management of resources rather than pursue criminal investigation after the harm had been done,” she stressed.

The head of the anti-graft agency said 10 chairmen of local government councils had been arrested and charged to court in the fight against corruption.

In her remarks, Basler spoke of the need for citizens to join in the fight against corruption because corruption was the single potent killer of the socio-economic development of the nation.

“Corruption kills the nation when people cannot have water to drink and doctors to care for them at the clinics due to misappropriation or diversion of funds by those in positions of authority.

“Citizens should be made to understand the fight through advocacy and mobilisation,” she said.

Basle also spoke of the need for citizens to lead a life of integrity and teach same to their children.

She said Transparency International would partner with the commission to bring about awareness so that the people could speak up against corruption.

“They should be taught to track and demand to know how resources provided for education, water and other infrastructure are spent,” she stressed.

Meanwgile -The EFCC Chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri, has alerted the nation of a new wave of hijacking of persons invited for interrogation by the commission.

The EFCC chief was speaking in Abuja when she received Ms Doris Basler, the Programme Manager of Transparency International.

Waziri said the commission had received reports of people being hijacked before getting to the EFCC headquarters by those she described as crooks.

These crooks pose as EFCC officers, intercept those invited and extort money from them,’’ she said. She also said people posed as EFCC operatives abroad and seek to compromise the agency by demanding money from suspects invited by it. “They even put phone calls to suspects and seek to bargain with them on pending cases,” she explained.

The EFCC chief urged those invited by the commission for investigation to be wary of these overtures by persons posing as EFCC officials.

“These persons are not EFCC officers at all,” she stressed.