A coalition of eighteen civil society and Non-Governmental groups has raised alarm that key officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have deviated from the clear mandate of the anti-graft War to resort to use of blackmail and intimidation of unsuspecting members of the business community.
In a statement jointly endorsed by the Coalition which spoke under the platform of the HHUMAN Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde (a Deputy Commissioner of police) was specifically urged to turn his searchlight on key officers of the Chairman’s Monitoring Unit (CMU) accused by different persons in the recent times of dabbling into the arena of civil cases for alleged pecuniary and selfish purposes rather than concentrate on the most strategic task of waging unrelenting war against all traces of economic crimes and corruption.
The Coalition of HUMAN Rights groups under HURIWA also announced that soon it would organize a follow up national policy dialogue on the anti-graft strategies of statutory government agencies with mandate to fight corruption so as to expose the rot and unethical methods being adopted by key operatives of the chairman’s monitoring unit of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
In the media statement endorsed jointly by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National media officer, Miss. Zainab Yusuf, the Rights group recalled that it held the first national policy dialogue on the ongoing anti-graft war in January 2012 and promised to convoke the follow up forum next month Abuja.
Specifically, at the first National Policy Dialogue organized in January 2012 by the coalition of eighteen registered civil society and Non-Governmental groups and spearheaded by the Human Rights Writers’ Association Of Nigeria, [HURIWA] and the Association of African Writers’ on Human and Peoples Rights, [AfriRights] the conveners showered encomiums on the newly confirmed Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr Ibrahim Lamorde, but quickly cautioned him and his management staff at the powerful anti-graft agency to steer clear of dabbling into partisan politics or allow itself to be stampeded into being used for purely political witch hunt for or against any political party or politically exposed persons of all political affiliations.
