Certain Civil Society Groups for Good Governance, during a courtesy visit to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) headquarters in Abuja, passed vote of confidence on the Executive Chairman of the Commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa, commending his tremendous achievements since assuming office. The groups noted that his works will always be reference points of courage in the task of fighting economic and financial crimes.
President of the CSO Groups, Dominic Ogakwu, emphasised that the EFCC under the current administration, has done tremendously well, especially, with its record of highest number of convictions since inception, noting that the attacks against the Commission are coming from corrupt elements out to demean its good works.
Ogakwu had declared: “There is a civil society group in Lagos saying that they will not stop until the Chairman steps down and it behoves us as stakeholders in the Nigerian project, to look into those issues by doing a background check on what necessitated the action, despite the tremendous achievements of this administration. We discovered that the campaigns were antics of politicians looking for a cover-up for their wrong doings.”
The CSO Groups further commended the Executive Chairman on his efforts in the area of staff welfare while appealing to the Commission to give accelerated treatment to some delayed petitions especially in areas of procurement fraud.
The Secretary to the Commission, Dr. George Ekpungu, commended the works of the groups, stating that EFCC is ready to collaborate with any group in the fight against corruption.
“We recognize that the civil societies are the front burners in the fight against corruption and they are the wheels through which a society is mirrored. I can tell you that there has never been a better fight against corruption than this administration.
“We have a chairman that is young, visionary, intelligent and ready to do the work but we all know that when you fight corruption, it will definitely fight back.
“As long as we are here, we will continue to stand up to the fight,” Ekpungu said.
Ekpungu charged the group to continue to stay true and collaborate with the Commission as the anti-graft war cannot be won in isolation.
The group presented an Award of Commendation to the Executive Chairman.