EFCC boss says Ibori is hospitalised
Farida Waziri, the
EFCC Chairperson, said on Friday that she was not under pressure from
any quarters to drop any case under investigation.
She also debunked
the allegation of shoddy handling of the prosecution of the former
Delta State governor, James Ibori, claiming that Mr Ibori was in
hospital in Dubai, and promised that the commission was working with
the Metropolitan Police to extradite him to the UK for trial.
Mrs Waziri said
that her purported sack and alleged shoddy handling of the prosecution
of Mr Ibori as well as the non-investigation of the Siemens bribery
scandal and the petition filed by some lawmakers against the leadership
of the National Assembly, were mere faceless publications. “Each time I
travel outside the country, I receive a sack letter in those soft-sell
newspapers, those kinds of junk newspapers, and in the minds of
faceless and narrow-minded cowards.
“If you really have
a story or an issue, you know where to go. If the leadership of EFCC is
not equal to the task, you know where to take up the matter.
“Bring out your
facts and figures, and we will confront each other. You don’t go
behind. We know the people behind the allegations,” she said.
Mrs Waziri said
that there had been a lot of obsession with the leadership of the EFCC,
because the 2011 elections were fast approaching. She advised the
public to discountenance such reports, saying, “They are not to be
taken seriously.”
The EFCC
Chairperson also announced that the commission was almost concluding
investigations into the Siemens bribery scandal. “The investigation is
not easy because Siemens AG has transferred some of those involved to
Germany and dismissed them. These are the witnesses to sustain the
trial, but we are not deterred.
“We are going to do
some prosecution; nothing will be swept under the carpet. And the same
goes for the petition submitted by some members of the National
Assembly,” she added, explaining that EFCC’s investigations were kept
discrete in order not to cause embarrassment to anyone before trial
commences.
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