The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa, has said that Nigerians have the power to deal with 2023 presidential aspirants who have pending corruption cases.
The EFCC boss said this on Monday when he spoke with select media representatives at an interactive session in Lagos.
Bawa noted that Nigerians are aware of the pending corruption cases against some of the presidential aspirants and that it is up to them to decide whether to elect them or not in the next election.
His words: “Nigerians are aware of everyone’s character, so Nigerians should decide who they want to elect to lead them in the next election.
“The constitutional provision is that there should presumption of innocence until proven guilty.
“Except if the person is pronounced guilty of the offence, there’s nothing we can do.”
Bawa, however, spoke about challenges inherent in prosecuting some of the presidential aspirants, who have pending corruption cases.
This followed questions on what he was doing about the statement of former President Olusegun Obasanjo during his 85th birthday at the weekend.
Obasanjo had while making references to presidential aspirants with corruption cases, said some of them should have been in jail if the anti-graft agencies in the country had done their jobs properly.
He said: “I cast a cursory look at some of the people running around and those for whom people are running around for.
“If the EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission have done their jobs properly and supported adequately by the judiciary, most of them would be in jail.
“Any person who has no integrity in small things cannot have integrity in big things.”
Further responding to questions on how free the EFCC is from interference by politicians and the office of the Attorney General of the Federation, Bawa said: “I want to assure you that the EFCC is an independent agency and has always been so.
“We need to know and understand as Nigerians and a country that we need to learn how to trust our leaders.
“We shouldn’t always be thinking negatively about our leaders.
“We are in a democracy.
“The legislators are on one side, you have the judiciary and then the executive.
“If you are not under the judiciary, you are automatically under the executive.
“It is out of sheer provision of the law that makes agencies like ours highly constitutional.
“There is that independence of the agency, not to tell us what to do.
“But, of course, we have to go through procedures.
“Someone has the power to appoint and sack you and to a certain level to ask you what you’re doing in this case or that.
“We all know how we started: one party was ruling.
“Now another party is ruling.
“However, the question has always remained: those that are being alleged of having done one or two things, are they free of those allegations?
“The answer is no.
“People need to understand that the AGF is the chief law officer of the federation, whether we like it or not, as provided by the constitution.
“We should be able to respect that office and respect our constitution.
“But is the EFCC under the office of the AGF?
“The answer is no.
“But as the chief law officer, we have a lot of issues that cross our day to day activities like general criminal justice administration.”
Applauding Obasanjo for his boldness on presidential aspirants with corruption cases, Bawa said the former president’s love for Nigeria is not in doubt, adding: “There are few Nigerians you can say that love this country more than Baba himself.
“He has always been in the public space and has served this country.
“Of course, Baba is right.
“There are many people that we have cases against, but they are out there.
“However, there’s this presumption of innocence until proven guilty.
“Even if the matter is in court, inasmuch as the judge didn’t pronounce the person guilty, the person still has a right to go and contest the election.
“That’s the honest truth and that is the situation we find ourselves in.”
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