There are divergent views on the surprise removal of Mrs. FaridaWaziri as helmsman of the Economic and Financial Commission, (EFCC) with those hailing the sack more deafening in their condemnation of the former anti-corruption czar.AS to be expected, elder statesman, Chief Ayo Adebanjo did not spare Mrs. Farida Waziri upon her removal as EFCC boss after spending only three of her four-year tenure. In an interview he had granted this newspaper last month, Chief Adebanjo had rubbished the activities of Mrs. Waziri and called for a total overhaul of the agency. Indeed, it was as if the presidency hearkened to his call by Waziri's sack. Thus, for him, the sack of the EFCC helmsman, Farida Waziri, was good riddance to bad rubbish. Chief Adebanjo, a leader of the Pan- Yoruba Socio-cultural organization, Afenifere, told The Nigerian Compass immediately the sack of Waziri was announced that she had not been performing well as head of the anti-corruption agency as many people had expected. According to him, when she first came on board there was high expectation that there would be a difference from what obtained during the Nuhu Ribadu era but he expressed regrets that there was no such change. According to him, she has been displaying gross partisanship in the performance of her work as well as double standards saying: 'its good riddance to bad rubbish'. With her removal, he said the president should reinvigorate the agency with the appointment of a retired judge as the anti-corruption czar while also appointing a seasoned police officer to head the investigating unit of the agency. He said much as Nigerians want to fight corruption with all their might they would not want the rights and liberty of anybody jeopardized in the process. This he said was what manifested in the era of both Waziri and her predecessor, Nuhu Ribadu as EFCC boss. Also speaking, legal luminary, Chief Niyi Akintola criticized the activities of the EFCC under Waziri. According to him, the EFCC under her try people on the pages of newspapers. 'Even before the charge is filed, you read it on the pages of newspapers which is wrong. It's not something that we should encourage and the antigraft agencies should do their homework well before taking anybody before the court of law. But what you find most of the times is that these agencies are not well equipped; the government is not serious; the agencies are not well funded; the prosecution unit is not well funded; 'You don't expect a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) to take up a case for EFCC for five-10 million naira to last up to five-10 years and the defence is ready to pay any amount. 'So, if we are serious about fighting corruption, we must strengthen the prosecution unit, it must be well funded; also the investigating unit too must be well funded, logistics must be made available, equipment, vehicles, gadgets etc. For instance, how many forensic laboratories do we have in the country' These are the things that hamper investigation itself. Most of the times, the EFCC or ICPC don't have access to necessary information concerning the suspect', he stressed. Speaking in the same vein, a legal practitioner, and human rights activist, Mr. Wale Ogunade said the fight against corruption under Waziri was more of a noise and media trial than the actual war itself. According to him, the EFCC scored very low on investigation and this was evidenced in the very low number of convictions she achieved under her leadership despite the noise and high profile arrests. Besides, he said there were also some allegations against her which made human rights activists called for her removal from office pointing out that as a result of the allegations, many of the donors and partners of the EFCC withdrawn their grants and partnership from the agency. A member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Daokuru Peterside said under Waziri, there were a lot of corruption issues bordering on her method that came up which smeared her name. According to him, some of these led to what some people called compromised convictions like the issue of plea bargaining which has now been described as illegal by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, (CJN), Justice Dahiru Musdapha. Indeed, the issue of plea bargaining, apart from poor investigation and media trial formed the sore points of the EFCC under Farida Waziri. The issue came into being during the trial of Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, former Managing Director of Oceanic Bank who was charged with stealing of over #250 billion belonging to the bank and who upon the plea bargaining clause was sentenced to only six months jail after returning the stolen loot. The same was obtained during the trail of Chief Lucky Igbinedion, former governor of Edo State, who repaid only #3 million out of about #4 billion allegedly looted from the state coffers during his eight year rule of the state from 1999-2007. But Farida herself defended her action when she said her resort to the plea bargaining option was as a result of necessity saying at least those involved were convicted. There was also the issue of the forobtained a perpetual injunction from a Port Harcourt high court to permanently restrain the EFCC from arresting and prosecuting him for alleged misappropriation of funds while he served as governor of the state from 1999-2007. Beyond this, however, are the main reasons for her removal. As the government failed to adduce any reason for her sack, a lot of reason given by many had been in the realm of speculation. Indeed, it was as if Farida who said she heard the news of her sack on television had anticipated her removal from office. On Monday, 21 November, she had delivered a damning lecture at the National Defence College in Abuja, where she spoke about the need for political will by the nation's leaders if we were really serious about the fight against corruption which he said was the greatest challenge to the nation's security. In the lecture titled: Economic Crimes and National Security: challenges for Nigeria Farida said there must be the political will by the leadership to fight corruption and also listed other necessary ingredients as effective law enforcement and an incorruptible judiciary. The lecture was said to have ruffled not a few feathers and may have actually been the final nail in her coffin to sack her. But the nod was not given until the final moments when President Goodluck Jonathan left for his tour to France. Waziri had also been at loggerheads with the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, which was supposed to be her supervising minister. She had always insisted and rightly too that the Bill setting up the EFCC did not make it subordinate to the ministry, hence she had always resisted any move by the ministry to put her under its wings. Here, she must have made a powerful enemy when one considers that even at the National Assembly, many of the members were not happy with her. Indeed, there is a pending bill at the National Assembly to ensure that the boss of the EFCC must be a retired justice of the Supreme Court or chief judge of the Appeal Court while the head of the prosecution must be a seasoned Police officer in the rank of Assistant Inspector General, (AIG). Farida herself was a retired AIG. She was also known to have complained bitterly of her frustrations in the court in efforts to gain convictions as a result of which she had asked for the creation of special courts to try corrupt persons as well as the expansion of the powers of EFCC. It was only recently that the CJN supported her on the creation of special courts and also wanted corruption cases to be disposed off in the courts within six months. Perhaps, one can say that Farida gave her best to the fight against corruption in the country but it does appears as if her best was not enough. All eyes will now be on the new helmsman, Ibrahim Larmorde who is not a stranger in the office, having acted briefly following Ribadu's removal by former President Umaru Yar'Adua in May 2008. The president's appointment of Lamurde as the commission's acting chairman, observers believe may signal a new phase in the fight against corruption in the country. Lamurde served as a trusted official under Ribadu, but later was sidelined following his departure. It is the view of political observers that the appointment is not a ploy to destroy the legacies of Farida who insists that she had done the best she could do in the anti-corruption war under the circumstrances. Like Senator Victor Lar said, she gave a good fight, but the fight against corruption is a massive and continuous one which is now left to the next person to carry on from where she stopped. Also, a member of the House of Representatives, Ayo Omidiran said she and many members of the national assembly really have nothing against Farida personally but some of her methods pointing out that people should be able to separate the individual from the office. Section 3(2) Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004 says: "A member of the Commission may at any time be removed by the President for inability to discharge the functions of his office (whether arising from infirmity of mind or body or any other cause) or for misconduct or if the President is satisfied that it is not in the interest of the Commission or the interest of the public that the member should continue in office."
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