Sources: In-fighting rocks EFCC over Salami panel’s push for police exit
There is tension at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the recommendation of the Justice Ayo Salami panel that police officers should be withdrawn from the agency, insiders have told TheCable.
Course One officers, who are foundation members of the agency but are not police officers, have been accused of pushing the panel to withdraw police from the EFCC.
The Salami panel, which was set up by President Muhammadu Buhari to probe allegations of impropriety in the commission, recommended the removal of Ibrahim Magu as the acting chairman and the disengagement of police officers from the agency.
“It is also important to point out that at the moment, 970 policemen (114 drivers, 641 mobile policemen and 215 operations), are on secondment in the EFCC. Therefore, an exit plan for the disengagement of the police and other personnel within two years from now should be considered. This will address the issue of no promotion of core staff for over nine years,” Salami told the president while submitting the report on Friday.
EFCC’s operations have always depended on the police for guidance and coordination, although the Department of State Services (DSS) helps with information gathering for the investigations.
“The move for the disengagement of the police was instigated by the overzealous ambition of a few elite Course One officers who feel that the police officers have served for 15 years and above. They want to control the agency. Unfortunately, the experienced ones among them are just a handful,” an official of the agency told TheCable.
“Course One officers rooting for the discharge of the police are among the second batch of Course One, not the first batch. They have ignored the superiority of the first batch of officers and have lobbied themselves to be posted as zonal heads in flagrant disregard of the principles of regimentation. This breeds indiscipline. This will ruin the EFCC,” the official said.
Another official, who declined to be named because of “fears of repercussion”, said the current acting chairman, Mohammed Umar Abba, is “causing confusion” in the agency.
“I can understand his lack of experience — the highest posting he has ever held was a DPO in a village — but he allowed the Course One officers to use him during the Salami panel proceedings, and he probably did not understand the implications of supporting the move to withdraw police officers from the agency because he too would be a victim.”
The argument of the Course One officers, sources told TheCable, is that the police men and officers have overstayed at the agency.
They had been seconded to EFCC in 2003 and were the ones who pioneered the commission and also served as enforcement officers.
Magu was one of them, although he was in the first batch.
“These police officers have attended many courses on money laundering and economic crimes, home and abroad, with huge amounts expended on them by the country,” one of the sources said.
One of the officials who spoke with TheCable said Magu was unfairly treated and has not been served justice.
“I have no desire to serve this country again,” the official said, maintaining that Magu was not suspended because of any allegations of corruption.
“Magu’s ill-treatment has shown that no one will be willing to sacrifice himself and his life to the fight against corruption in the future for fear of offending the political class who are using their evil machination to manipulate the president.
“Those in government stole billions of naira to embark on a nationwide property craze which the suspended chairman vowed to unravel. Some individuals also conspired to pull him out of the commission with a view to hiding their true nature. This is responsible for their current desperation to ensure he does not return to the commission for fear of reprisal.
“To understand the nature of the suspended chairman regarding corruption, only recently the national assembly, during the commission’s budget defence, discovered that a whooping N6 billion was left in the coffers of the commission because of prudent management.”
Since its establishment in 2003, the commission has been headed by police officers.
Nuhu Ribadu, the pioneer chairman; Farida Waziri, his successor, and Ibrahim Larmode who took over from Waziri, led the agency as police officers.
The police started losing influence at the commission when the probe of Magu began.
Mohammed Adamu, inspector-general of police, had initially ordered the withdrawal of all the mobile policemen attached to the commission and later recalled key police officers at the EFCC.
Wilson Uwujaren, spokesman of the anti-graft agency neither answered calls nor replied a text message sent to him over the development.
TheCable had earlier reported how some officials of the EFCC complained over the “elevation of the junior officers above qualified senior officers”.
The EFCC officials who had spoken off the record had said those affected were demoralised that the current acting chairman approved the postings which were against the hierarchical standard in the commission.
“The new posting just came out and level 12/13 officers are put as zonal heads over a level 16 officer to be taking instructions from?” one of the sources had said.
Although Buhari has not made public any action on the report of the panel, he has vowed that his administration “will cut off any stream that supports the growth of corruption”.
He said the fight against corruption should be done without fear or favour, adding that no individual is bigger than the country.
This ur story,is very correct,let me add more,assist us.SUBJECT: HIGH LEVEL OF INJUSTICE IN ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRIME COMMISSION.
Sir,
Above subject matter, refers
The major reason why high rate of injustice inside the commission is because there is no proper record,or written constitution backing up some critical activities of the commission, because of this ,it has become a very big challenges and make all chairman that come to misbehave.
The following point Below Need To Be Address as Quick as Possible:.
1.Malicious Transfer: this is one of the highest,transferring people without no reason and no time limit to retransfer them.many people are in one place for over 10year,many people have turn abuja and Lagos office to there homes,like is there right to be there,if you request for transfer again,you Will Not Get It until you know someone ,before it will be approve.they are expected to be moving around the whole country, there should be a number of years you spend at a particular office not to compromise cases.
2.promotion:is another major issue,staff are not promoted as at when due, presently all staff are over due for promotion , majority are due for double promotions,which the magu administration willingly neglected because he think the senior onces will take over chairman from him.
3.making police the head:we all know in this country that 95% of Nigeria police has no integrity,and making those set of organization to lead an anti corruption agency is very bad,and many of them over stay in the commission more than expected,once your 4years is over and renew for another 4years let them go and not to come back.
4.Ranking system:the ranking system in efcc make no provison for junior carder to grow on the job,there should be a system like police ranking and also enable conversion of staff with Additional qualifications on the job.
5.poor recruitment system:very high rate of injustice,people from all part of the country are not equally selected,choose mostly from north because of the present leader (nepotism),and no payment of training allowance,even after approve by the Government,they were only giving 22,000 when on training at NDA and they are told that there allowance was use to feed them and train them,however 1 year payment is out from there 35years of services without pay .
6. Favourism in staff training:you must know somebody before your name appears on domestic and international training.
7.no proper record.
8.The new offices are not properly finance,some staffs stands around,no system,no chair,no proper allowance.
All This Point Need To Be Address As Quick As Possible To enable EFCC Operate with International Best Practice and Corruption Free And Role Model To Other Organization,and Also Boast The Moral Of The Good Officers Among Them.you Can Verify All This Point and You Will Confirm it.
Is High Time to Reform EFCC ,before It Become So Obvious Like The SARS
Your Faithfully
Anonymous Citizen Of The Federal Republic Of Nigeria.
Why not say As-IT-IS then? The entire issue with the EFCC is that the attorney general has an axe to grind. The reason/s , unfortunately where never looked for nor allowed to surface. What is left may probably be a ghost of the EFCC that becomes fully politicised.