The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has reacted to the audiotape alleging that Nigeria’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami controls the anti-graft agency.

In the trending audio, Mohammed Idris, a lawyer, and police officer attached to the EFCC made serious claims regarding the influence of Malami.

The operative stated that the AGF, who supervises the commission head by Abdulrasheed Bawa, compromised cases of corruption.

In one of the recordings published by Daily Nigerian, Idris is heard discussing with Abdulbari Yusuf, a brother of retired Rear Admiral, Tahir Yusuf, facing trial.

The one-time Director of Navy Accounts and his company, Aston, had their accounts frozen by the EFC at the early stage of investigations.

Idris, however, advised Yusuf how to win the case at the Court of Appeal and also extract money from an account.

“If he has money in any account linked with his BVN (Bank Verification Number), he should quickly evacuate them. If he makes transfers, EFCC will still trace it. He should only withdraw and then deposit into another account,” he said.

Earlier, Yusuf declared Malami was in charge of the anti-graft body and had ordered the unfreezing of “big accounts”.

“Malami now controls the EFCC. The commission is in his hands. Once Malami speaks, the account will be unfrozen. They are unfreezing suspects’ accounts, including the big cases,” he revealed.

In a release, Thursday night, EFCC Head of Media, Wilson Uwujaren, announced the start of the investigation of the tape.

He stated that the commission will activate its internal mechanism to deal with the issues arising therefrom.

Read the full statement by EFCC below:

The attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has been drawn to a trending audiotape in the social media, where Mohammed Idris, a lawyer and seconded police officer with the Commission, purportedly made unsubstantiated claims regarding the influence of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, on the Commission.

The Commission wishes to state that it has commenced investigation into the content of the audiotape and will activate its internal mechanism to deal with the issues arising therefrom.

For the avoidance of doubt, the EFCC does not condone acts of corruption. Abuse of privilege for financial gratification by personnel of the Commission is a serious offense against discipline.

Without prejudice to the outcome of the investigation, snippets of the audio recording clearly showed an abysmally compromised “officer” dropping names to ingratiate his benefactor, a relative of a crime suspect. By the alleged action, the said officer is no more than a corrupt fifth columnist with scant regard for the values of the Commission.

The action is contemptuous of the established Standard Operating Procedure of the EFCC. Such professional indiscretion has no place in the new EFCC. The Commission encourages citizens who encounter any such unprofessional conduct by personnel of the EFCC to report to the Commission in support of our quest to build a better Agency.

Reporting such conduct has been made easy by the Eagle Eye App, a financial crime reporting application that was launched earlier in the year. We encourage members of the public to download the App from the Apple and Google Play Store and put it to use.

Finally, the Commission wishes to assure the public that its operations are guided by established professional precepts which do not support the kind of discretion that could allow for manipulation by external actors.

Wilson Uwujaren

Head, Media & Publicity

23 December 2021