Northern CSOs: We didn’t call for sack of EFCC chairman

A coalition of northern civil society organisations says its members were not involved in a protest calling for the sack of Abdulrasheed Bawa, chairman of the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

In a statement jointly signed on Thursday by 19 northern CSOs including the FCT, the coalition said “corrupt leaders who have embezzled public money belonging to their states” were behind the protest.

Earlier, some anti-corruption CSOs had staged a protest to demand the sack of the EFCC chairman over contempt of court.

The coalition, conference of northern states’ civil society networks,  commended the achievements of the agency under the watch of Bawa.

“As professional career civil society actors, we are disturbed by the emerging trend where some political leaders occupying exalted positions in some states would stoop too low, to sponsor some civil society organizations to organize protests against a public servant, who is empowered by law to undertake a crusade against corrupt persons, in Nigeria,” the statement reads.

“Unfortunately, such corrupt leaders have not only embezzled public money belonging to their states but have also allowed their immediate family and relations to embezzle billions of public money, meant for the people of their state.

“One of such states has been placed as one of the most backward in all indices of development. We wish to use this medium to inform such political leaders that they have no hiding place, and no amount of hiring the civil society organizations staging protests on some streets could save them and their families alleged to be involved in corruption from the hand of the law.

“The most unfortunate behaviour of those kind of civil society organizations, is their tendency of allowing themselves to be misled by some politicians without recourse to humanity, service to the nation as well as duty towards the promotion of a genuine course such as the fight against corruption and corrupt practices.

“We therefore as a conference of Northern state civil society networks representing states-based civil society networks/coalitions from the nineteen northern states and FCT, wish to categorically put on record that, the groups protesting in some parts of Lagos state do not represent civil society organizations from all over the country, therefore, are not speaking for us or on our behalf, and we do not in any way share in their opinion calling for the sacking of the EFCC Chairman.

“As ambassadors of the EFCC and anti-corruption crusaders, we have so far appreciated the milestones achieved under the stewardship of Abdulrasheed Bawa, as the chairman of the EFCC.

“The current leadership of the EFCC has not only changed the approach on the fight against corruption but has also systematically introduced more durable reforms, such as increased number of qualified manpower, encouraged the culture of training and retraining of the staff, for more professionalism and effective discharge of the duties, imbibed human relations standard, improved standard of internal mechanism on staff discipline and administration for best practices, as well as increased integrity of the institution, in and outside the country.”

The CSOs urged the EFCC to remain focused in its fight against corrupt practices, adding that they would continue to support its efforts.

“We wish to call on President Muhammad Buhari to disregard and completely ignore the calls for the sack of the EFCC chairman by the paid protesters as it is being sponsored by a state governor that himself and his immediate family members are enmeshed in alleged corruption.”

The CSOs included Kano Civil Society Forum, Association of NGOs, Gombe, Kogi NGOs Network, Network of Adamawa Non-Governmental Organisations and Bauchi State Civil Society Organisations. Others are Network of Civil Society Organisations, Borno, Concerned Civil Society among others.