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The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) is mourning the loss of its key operative, Abdullahi
Muazu, who was killed yesterday in his home in Kaduna. Mr Muazu was,
until his death, the head of the Forensic Unit of the anti-graft agency.

The EFCC says that there is not enough
evidence to suspect any particular person, as Mr Muazu had been
involved in several EFCC cases. An operative of the agency, who asked
not to be named, told NEXT in Abuja that Mr Muazu was very involved in
the ongoing trials of the bank chiefs who were sacked by the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN) last year.

“Muazu was involved in virtually all
our cases because he was the head of the Forensic Unit, so it is
difficult to say that we suspect any particular person,” the EFCC
official said. “I know that he was very much involved in all the trials
of the Bank Chiefs, you know with checking finger prints and all that.”
The spokesman of the commission, Femi Babafemi, in a press statement
made available to NEXT, condemned the killing; adding that the
anti-graft agency is strengthening its resolve to go ahead with its
duties.

“Information reaching the Commission
today confirms that our head of forensic unit was killed in a cruel
manner in the early hours of today by unknown assailants. Those behind
this attack may have succeeded in killing a strategic hand and a key
witness in some of our on-going cases, but their act has failed to
dampen our spirit or deter us from continuing our investigation and
prosecution of all forms of economic crimes and corruption in the
country,” Mr Babafemi said.

Ominous killings

Mr Babafemi also said that the commission has launched an immediate investigation into the matter.

Mr Muazu’s death is coming just one day
after the gruesome murder of an agent of the State Security Service
(SSS), Garba Bello, who was killed alongside his children and wife in
Kano.

Bamidele Aturu, a Lagos Attorney,
described the murder of the SSS agent as “ominous”, while alluding that
the death is related to the coming 2011 elections. Mr Aturu also
expressed a lack of faith in the ability of law enforcement agencies in
the country to apprehend the killers.

“One must confess that it is futile to call on the security agencies
to fish out sponsors of gruesome and cold blooded murders such as the
one that happened in Kano on Monday,” he said. “They seem eternally
incapable of that. We can only hope that this latest killing might just
be an exception in the sea of murder riddles in a country that spends
billions of dollars on security at all levels of governance or
mis-governance.”