The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has debunked a phantom “exclusive’’ news report on social media, alleging that its Executive Chairman, Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa and former Chairman of the defunct Skye Bank, Mr. Tunde Ayeni, are travelling together, abroad, on a clandestine, self-serving mission.
The anti-graft agency further urged the public to note that the story, which vainly tries to push a certain malodorous agenda, is absolutely false and should be discontenanced.
The EFCC stated this in a statement made available on Friday by its Head of Media and Publicity, Mr Wilson Uwujaren.
The statement reads in part, “If it were not for its potential to confound and confuse the unwary, the Commission would have ignored the story. However, there is every need to set the facts straight.
“To start with, there was never a meeting and certainly no “plan” between the EFCC Chair and Mr. Ayeni to go anywhere together.
“Furthermore, while the EFCC Chairman is at this time on an approved mission abroad, Ayeni, whom the fiction-turned-news story says is on a clandestine trip with Mr. Bawa, is, from checks, right here in Nigeria. A cursory check would have confirmed that.
“If the design is to get the Commission to compromise its mandate to investigate and prosecute all cases of economic and financial crimes, then the purveyors of the tendentious story have failed woefully.
“No matter what, the Commission will be guided only by that mandate and its very clear Standard Operating Procedure and will not be blackmailed or act in any way predetermined or teleguided by private interests. The EFCC will only pursue the public interest as defined by the law establishing the Commission.”
