EFCC boss alleges diabolical attacks

By Oscarline Onwuemenyi

ABUJA – Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mrs. Farida Waziri, said, yesterday, that some corrupt people being investigated by the anti-graft agency had resorted to diabolical means to get her out of the way.

She also stressed that the anti-corruption fight was not personal or selective, noting that allegations of selectivity by the Commission, especially as regargds prosecution of some leaders of the last House of Representatives, were the handiwork of her detractors.

Waziri, who spoke during a courtesy visit by the national executive of  Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ, to her office at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja, noted that corrupt elements in the county were resorting to extreme means to sidetrack her from doing her job.

She said: “There is a sustained campaign of calumny against my person that simply refuses to go away. Some of these people have even resorted to diabolical means, such as burying cows alive in order to attack me. Some of them also come back to tell me these things. I’ve even joked that soon I shall charge them for cruelty against animals, which in orther climes is a serious matter.”

The EFCC boss pointed out that many of her critics were not impressed when she was appointed as head of the anti-graft agency, with many of them predicting she would not last beyond three months.

Waziri said: “There was a lot of tension in the country when I was appointed and a lot of people were not happy. But I have a strong commitment to doing the job I was given without fear or favour. It is the people we are prosecuting that are spreading these malicious rumours that we are being selective.”

Waziri further stated that the Commission was continuing its investigation of former governors, but was being careful not to rush the cases to court without building up substantial evidence.