PANIC IN EFCC AS WAZIRI MOVES TO AVERT IMPENDING REMOVAL

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mrs. Farida Waziri, might have initiated discreet moves to persuade President Goodluck Jonathan to retain her as the head of the anti-graft agency.
It was gathered that Waziri had been visiting the residence of Senate President, David Mark, who is believed to be one of the President’s men to prevail on Jonathan to halt any plans remove her from the commission.
Investigations over the past two weeks showed that Waziri was jolted by the sudden withdrawal of the former Director of Operations of the commission, Mr. Steve Otitoju, by the police authorities and his replacement with Ibrahim Lamorde, a former DOO of the commission under Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, without any prior notice.
EFCC chairman was not given the opportunity to make the announcement of Lamorde’s movement to the commission to head the operations arm.
It was gathered that it was the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Hafiz Ringim, who announced Larmode’s appointment and the recall of Otitoju to his primary duty post in the police.
It was learnt that Waziri initially resisted the appointment of Larmorde, but was told “it was a directive from above.”
It was gathered that Otitoju might not be the only policeman on secondment to the EFCC, who might be recalled as moves were being made to replace all policemen, who had put in three years and above with fresh police detectives as a way of intensifying the campaign against corruption in the society.
However, the Police Force Public Relations Officer, Mr. Sola Amore, denied the claim that a directive had been issued to that effect that the policemen on secondment to the EFCC, who had spent three years and above, be recalled.
Our correspondent however gathered that the change of guards in the DOO office signified that more far reaching changes would soon be carried out in the commission.
Larmorde, who was relieved of his position in the EFCC in 2007 by the Yar‘Adua Administration, was the DOO under the inaugural chairman of the commission – Ribadu – now a presidential aspirant under the umbrella of the Action Congress of Nigeria.
Investigations showed that Larmode was on his way to replacing the chairman of the commission because the Presidency was not happy with the state of the campaign against corruption under the leadership of Waziri.
According to a source close to the Presidency, Jonathan is not happy that the nation had not recorded any commendable achievement in the campaign against corruption in spite of the increasing spate of theft of public funds.
It was learnt that the Presidency had turned Waziri back from the Presidential Villa on some occasions when she attempted to seek Jonathan’s attention on some files that had to do with high-profile cases of corruption.
The President was said to have told the EFC boss that he had no business with interfering with the process of the campaign against corruption situated at the core of the nation’s problems.
An angry Jonathan, who was said to have refused the EFCC boss audience on a number of occasions, was said to have sent messages to her to carry out her assignment of combating corruption in the country.
The source said that the government was worried that the anti-graft agency, which gained international acceptance and changed the perspective of the international community about Nigeria, had become comatose under Waziri.
Investigations showed that the choice of Larmode, which was taken to add a bite to the anti-corruption crusade, was made because of what he accomplished while he was working as the organisation’s DOO under Ribadu.
The source said, “Well, Larmode was appointed because the EFCC is no longer what it used to be under Ribadu. You will agree with me that nothing is happening in the fight to stop corrupt practices, while corruption is waxing stronger in the society.
“No matter what you say about Ribadu and the men that worked under him, those people took the fight against corruption to an unprecedented level. You could feel them working and showing commitment to the sensitive task of combating this evil.
“However, since 2007 when Waziri was appointed, the EFCC has become a shadow of its former self. That must have been responsible for this current move.”
Larmode’s name was said to have cropped up in concerned government circles when expectations that Ribadu might be made a special adviser to Jonathan on Anti-Corruption Matters fell through.
The change in the commission will be coming on the heels of damning reports by international anti-corruption campaigners, the Transparency International, that the country had suffered a humiliating descent in corruption ratings.