Bawa transformed EFCC, made it professional, HURIWA tells Nigerians

Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has thrown its weight behind the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, saying that he has transformed the Commission and made it professional.

HURIWA in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, urged Nigerians not to forget the giant strides of Bawa, adding that the Commission has recorded over 3,615 convictions under his leadership.

He said, “Patriotic Nigerians are aware that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been revitalized, reshaped, and made much more alive to its statutory responsibilities under the leadership of the present Chairman despite corruption always fighting back ferociously.

“Before the coming of Bawa, the work of the EFCC had come under public scrutiny and criticism. Many criticized the agency and branded it as a political tool in the hands of the presidency. All this has changed under Bawa as the agency is now far more professional and focused on its statutory responsibility.

“The EFCC recorded only 195 convictions in 2016, in 2017, EFCC recorded 186, which went down; in 2018 when the Commission recorded 312 convictions, in 2019, they recorded 1,280 convictions, which went up by over 312 percent. In 2022, when the nation went through the harrowing experience of COVID, convictions went down to 976.

“In 2021, which was part of Bawa’s administration they recorded an unprecedented 2,220 convictions and in the year 2022, we have so far recorded 3,615 convictions before the end of the year. This was both unprecedented and phenomenal and it happened under the leadership of Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa.

“Recall also that on July 29, 2022, the EFCC raided Abuja Bureau de change operators, in a bid to save the Naira, which traded for N710 against the dollar in the black market then. The check of the EFCC on the activities of the Bureau de Change, played a major role in the halting decline of the value of the Naira, which may have exceeded N1,000 today unchecked.”