Ekweremadu not EFCC ambassador, agency denies awarding titles

The  Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has  strongly denied reports that it  decorated the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, as “Anti-Corruption Ambassador”.

According to a statement issued to the Press by the Special Adviser to the Deputy Senate President, Uche Anichukwu, the purported decoration, was carried out by the EFCC National Assembly Liaison Officer, Suleiman Bakari.

The latter said he did so on behalf of Mr. Ibrahim Mustafa Magu and the entire management and staff of the EFCC, “as a token of our appreciation to your person and office, and as a symbol of the institutional partnership between the EFCC and the National Assembly”.

Wilson Uwujaren speaking on behalf of EFCC this morning  dissociated the anti-graft agency from the action of Sulaiman Bakari.

“He acted entirely on his own. He clearly acted outside his brief as a liaison officer as the management of the Commission at no time mandated him to decorate Ekweremadu or any officer of the National Assembly as Anti- Corruption Ambassador,” Uwujaren said.

“The statutory mandate of the EFCC is the investigation and prosecution of all economic and financial crimes cases, which does not include the decoration of individuals as anti- corruption ambassadors. The Commission is not in the habit of awarding titles to individuals. And those enamoured of titles, knows the quarters to approach for such honours, not the EFCC

“Members of the public and stakeholders in the fight against corruption are enjoined to disregard the so-called decoration.”