EFCC Denies Decorating Ekweremmadu As Ambassador

ECONOMIC and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has raised alarm denouncing the reports in some media that the Commission has decorated the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremmadu as its ambassador.

The Commission frowned over the development stating that as a agency of the government vested with powers to fight against crimes in the society, it would be illogical to decorate anyone in the society with such position adding that the commission was not established for such frivolities but to fight crimes in the society.

According to a statement reportedly issued by the Special Adviser to the Deputy Senate President, Uche Anichukwu, the purported decoration, was carried out by the EFCC National Assembly Liaison Officer, Suleiman Bakari.

Following the development, the anti-graft body has formally distanced itself from the decoration and urged members of the general public to disregard it in entirety.

The spokesperson for the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said in a statement that the EFCC National Assembly Liaison Officer, Suleiman Bakari, operated beyond his capacity by decorating Ekweremadu without recourse to the EFCC.

“The attention of the EFCC has been drawn to some reports in the print and online media, on April 20, 2016 claiming that the anti-graft agency has decorated the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, as “Anti-Corruption Ambassador.

“On behalf of my acting chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Mustafa Magu and the entire management and staff of the EFCC, decorate you as an Anti-Corruption Ambassador and formally present this frame, as a token of our appreciation to your person and office, and as a symbol of the institutional partnership between the EFCC and the National Assembly.

“The EFCC totally dissociates itself from the purported action of Sulaiman Bakari as he acted entirely on his own. He clearly acted outside his brief as a liaison officer as the management of the Commission at no time mandated him to decorate Ekweremadu or any officer of the National Assembly as Anti-Corruption Ambassador.

“The statutory mandate of the EFCC is the investigation and prosecution of all economic and financial crimes cases, which does not include the decoration of individuals as anti- corruption ambassadors. The Commission is not in the habit of awarding titles to individuals. And those enamoured of titles, knows the quarters to approach for such honours, not the EFCC.

“Members of the public and stakeholders in the fight against corruption are enjoined to disregard the so-called report", the statement stated.