The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, has said that he frequently receives death threats, over his new job,
Bawa made the disclosure during an Interview, on Tuesday.
When asked about President Muhammadu Buhari’s frequent assertion that “corruption is fighting back”, the EFCC Chairman revealed that he was in New York, United States of America, USA, last week, when he received a threat call.
He also insisted that the Ministry of Petroleum Resources under President Muhammadu Buhari’s watch as Minister, will be probed just like every other Ministry.
His words: “Last week, I was in New York, when a senior citizen received a phone call from somebody that is not even under investigation.
“The young man said: ‘I am going to kill him (Bawa), I am going to kill him’.
“I get death threats. So it is real. Corruption can fight back.”
He noted there are many loopholes in the Civil Service, particularly in contract processing, citing “emergency contracts” as an example.
“A particular Agency is notorious for that. They have turned all their contracts to emergency contracts.”
He however, said that the EFCC has strategies in place to check corruptions, one of which he revealed is “corruption risk assessments of MDAs”.
His noted: “I have written to the Minister, and would soon commence the process of corruption risk assessments of all the Parastatals and Agencies under the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, to look at their vulnerability to fraud, and advise them accordingly.”
When asked if the scale of the country’s corruption overwhelms him, Bawa replied: “Yes and no.
“Yes, because if you look at it, almost everywhere there are elements of it (corruption). No, because I am very optimistic we will succeed in taming the monster of corruption in this country.
“I am very optimistic, and with the efforts of the government. One of the cardinal principles of the President administration is to fight corruption, and we in the EFCC and other Law Enforcement Agencies saddled with this responsibility… we are doing our best and trying to curtail it.
“Nigeria is a very religious country, and that is why one of the issues that we do in public enlightenment, is to engage with Leaders of religious bodies. We are soon going to launch our interface with the Christian and Islamic communities, to engage them on the ills of corruption.
“We have already designed the manual for that.”