New Telegraph

PACAC: There’re plans to ‘demolish’ anti-graft war

…says draft bill threat to EFCC’s existence

The Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Itse Sagay, has raised the alarm of alleged plan to “demolish” the ongoing fight against corruption. According to Sagay, the alleged plot was to be executed through the instrumentality of a bill he said had been drafted for possible presentation to the National Assembly. Specifically, the senior advocate of Nigeria, who made the claim in a statement yesterday by the Communications Officer of PACAC, Mr. Aghogho Agbahor, said the proposed bill seeks to whittle down the power of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) via the repeal of the EFCC Establishment Act, 2004.

To buttress his position, Sagay said the draft bill proposed the “scrapping of the commission (EFCC) and replacing it with a weak agency that would be a department in the Federal Ministry of Justice under the Attorney- General of the Federation. The statement titled; “Grave threat to the continued existence of the EFCC”, reads in part: “There is an on-going very sinister and dangerous attempt to demolish the anticorruption infrastructure of Nigeria and return it to the situation it was in during the dark days before 2015.

“Those behind it are the representatives of the corrupt establishment that brought this country to its knees and subjected us to humiliation as a result of an extremely negative reputation internationally. It can be said without equivocation that this is the mother of corruption fighting back”.

He described the proponents of the bill, whom he failed to identify, as “enemies of Nigeria, who are presently too ashamed to put their names to the draft bill being circulated”. He said the following proposals were being sought in the bill, among others; “The replacement of the Executive Chairman of the EFCC with a Director-General, who is effectively to be appointed by the Attorney-General.

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