The Ikeja area of Lagos State witnessed traffic logjam on Saturday afternoon when hundreds of anti-Bawa activists of the Coalition of Anti-Corruption Organizations spread out in their numbers along the busy Alausa-Obafemi Awolowo Way chanting “Bawa Must Go” with placards condemning the EFCC chairman’s penchant for disobeying court orders.
The crowd was vehement in demanding for the removal of Abdulrasheed Bawa as chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Led by Dr. Kolawole Sanchez-Jude, Comrade Declan Ihekaire, Barristers Cletus Okedube, Johnson Areola, and George Sanda, and Comrade Femi Lawson, and a host of other notable activists, the protest was well-coordinated with Police presence to forestall the protest from being hijacked by hoodlums.
The group’s press statement was read by Comrade Lawson and it’s reproduced below:
“The EFCC cannot continue to dehumanise Nigerians on the pages of newspapers, based on unverified political investigations and without proving their case beyond reasonable doubt in a competent court.
“The fixation of the EFCC boss on certain individuals and institutions, when grievous petitions capable of bringing the economy down are left unattended, gives the anti-corruption war, under the leadership of Mr. Bawa, a dangerously political colouration.
“It has become a tool used to distract perceived political opponents of certain powerful interests with all manner of unfounded embarrassments, promoted in both the conventional and social media
“We have authoritative information that the EFCC has been intimidating the media not to cover stories that are unfavorable to the Commission.
“We call on stakeholders in the Nigerian project to call them to order. Nigeria is not a Police state, and we the activists will not stand by while people’s rights are denied them unjustly.”
