The Ninth Senate has confirmed the nomination of 40-year-old Abdulrasheed Bawa as the substantive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The confirmation followed a two-hour screening exercise conducted at plenary on Wednesday.
Earlier during his confirmation hearing, Bawa denied an allegation that as the Head of the Port Harcourt Zonal Office of the commission, he sold off oil trucks confiscated from oil thieves.
The commission had earlier debunked the allegation.
“As zonal head of the Port Harcourt office of the commission in 2019, Bawa’s responsibilities did not include the sale of assets as the commission has a full-fledged Directorate of Assets Forfeiture and Recovery Management, which remit such matters,” the commission had said.
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Also debunking the allegation, he stated that he did not have powers to sell off the recovered assets.
“I never sold a single truck at the Port Harcourt office; the head office handled that at the time,” he told the Senate.
Bawa added, “When I took over the Port Harcourt office, they had 34 convictions but when I got there, we recorded 216 convictions.
“Anybody that is familiar with the processes of the EFCC knows that the chairman doesn’t have the power to sell an asset but the secretary of the agency.”
He assured the Red Chamber of his commitment to repositioning the anti-graft commission for greater efficiency if confirmed as its substantive head.
“Before we reposition, we need to know what the institution stands for. We would work on our standard operational procedures to improve on those procedures.
“We are looking forward to an EFCC that when I give an (wrong) instruction to a junior officer; he will refuse it because that order contravenes the law,” Bawa stated.