Jonathan replies Waziri, ex-EFCC boss

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8 years ago

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has responded to the claim made by former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs. Farida Waziri, that she was stopped from investigating an oil subsidy fraud suspect under the previous administration.

She was reported to said that the probe of the suspect which she claimed was close to the presidential villa, later led to her sack by the former president who, with hindsight, she is now grateful to for firing her.

The former anti-graft boss was reported to have been happy to be booted out at the time because of the corruption revelations which later emerged concerning the activities of the Jonathan’s administration.

She was quoted to have said during a meeting in Lagos: “I’m only glad that those things didn’t happen under my watch as the EFCC Chairman because it would have been too traumatic for me.

“And that is why if I see President Jonathan today, I will kneel down to thank him for the honour done me by removing me as the EFCC Chairman at the time he did.

“My first strong premonition of what was ahead was when I began the probe of the monumental oil subsidy fraud going on then.

“I came to Lagos on a vital intelligence on the subsidy scam and as soon as I arrested a key culprit I got a call from the Presidential Villa asking me to release the suspect, because, in their words, ‘he is our person’, but I refused to let him off and days after I was removed from office.”

But responding with a tweet on his verified twitter handle @GEJonathan on Wednesday, President Jonathan challenged Waziri to name the person she was stopped from investigating if she was not lying about it.

He also called on the EFCC to investigate the matter since according to him, crime has no statute bar.

The former president said if Warizi cannot name the individual involved, he would take it that she had been hired to attack him.

“If Farida is not telling lies she should mention the person or company she was investigating and she was stopped, let the @officialEFCC investigate. Crime has no statute bar. If she can’t then she was simply hired to attack me,” Jonathan tweeted.

The Jonathan administration had in November 2011, announced the sack of Warizi and in her place, appointed Ibrahim Lamorde as the Acting Chairman of the EFCC.

A statement issued by the Special Adviser to the president on media and publicly at the time, Reuben Abati, had simply said that the appointment of Lamorde took

immediate effect, “and effectively relieves Mrs. Farida Waziri of her position as EFCC Chairman.”

Waziri was appointed EFCC Chairman by Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on May 18, 2008 and confirmed by the Senate on May 27, 2008.