Photo: Bawa gets the boot, detained.
DSS detains suspended EFCC Chairman
The Department of State Services (DSS) has quizzed the suspended chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Abdulrasheed Bawa.
The spokesperson of the Service, Dr. Peter Afunanya, who confirmed this on Wednesday night, said Bawa honoured DSS’ invitation after he was suspended from office.
According to him, “Bawa arrived a few hours ago. The invitation relates to some investigative activities concerning him.”
The DSS, however, did not state if he has been released on bail or is still being held at their facility.
President Bola Tinubu had on Wednesday approved the indefinite suspension from office of Bawa, ostensibly to allow for proper investigation into his conduct while in office.
This is contained in a statement issued on Wednesday in Abuja by Mr Willie Bassey, Director of Information, office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
According to the statement, Bawa’s suspension follows weighty allegations of abuse of office levelled against him.
It said that Bawa had been directed to immediately hand over the affairs of his office to the Commission’s Director of Operations, who will oversee the affairs of the Office of the Chairman of the Commission pending the conclusion of the investigation.
Bawa’s suspension came barely one week after the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele was suspended by Tinubu.
The suspended EFCC boss was the first staff of the commission to be appointed as its chairman.
Appointed in 2021 at the age of 40 while he was Deputy Chief Detective Superintendent heading the Lagos zonal office of the EFCC, Bawa was confirmed as the chairman of the commission in February 2021.
He joined the organisation in 2004 and was in October 2015 appointed to head the commission’s investigations of Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former minister of Petroleum Resources, and her associates.
Bawa was the youngest chairman of the commission who stepped into the highly coveted office at 40 years of age.
