A group, The True Face of Lagos, on Wednesday, visited the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mrs. Farida Waziri, and demanded to know the latest action of the agency on its petition against Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola’s administration.

Presenting their protest letter to the EFCC boss, the leader of the group, Mr. Adesina Adebayo, commended the approach of the commission to all cases of corruption handled by it

He said, “We take special note of your massive clampdown on corrupt individuals and officials of the government in Bayelsa, Kogi, Benue , Gombe and other states of the federation.”

A statement by the EFCC’s Head, Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Babafemi, however, quoted Adebayo as saying that the group felt disappointed that Lagos State had been excluded from the anti-graft war in recent times despite the widespread and comprehensive petition that the group wrote to the EFCC on the allegations of corrupt practices allegedly being committed in the state.

Responding, Waziri said the commission received the said petition and had never stopped working on it. She said, “We are working on it. We do what is called discreet investigation first; we check banks, check companies and this involves the Corporate Affairs Commission, to see the actual shareholders of the companies alleged to have executed the contracts.

“We also check telephone numbers; and this we don’t do to the knowledge of everybody. When we get to a comfortable stage, we open up on our investigation. I can assure you that we are already working on the petition.”

She added that the group would only know about the extent of work on the petition when it gets to the stage where the commission needed to invite people.

Waziri said, “We don’t just arrest because we have a petition. Lagos is not the only state we are working on. My men are overworked. We work 24/7, Saturday, Sunday; we don’t have any break at all. I can assure you that nothing is going to be swept under the carpet; nothing, not when I am here.”

Asked to comment on the statement credited to the National Security Adviser, Lt. Gen. Aliyu Gusau (rtd.), that she was being selective in her investigations, arrest and prosecution, the EFCC chairman said, “Well, I don’t think he said quite that. I was there at the meeting where he was quoted to have said all that. But on the issue of selectivity, I don’t think crime is committed on the basis of federal character. I can’t say a Yoruba man commits a crime, I should wait for an Igbo man or an Hausa man to commit a crime before I arrest or go to court,

“There is no issue of selectivity, definitely, we are not being selective. If we have no case against you, we won’t even arrest you in the first place.

“We get our facts before we invite the suspect. The suspect comes last, in tandem with international best practices.”


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