Moments after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Wednesday night approved the indefinite suspension of the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, to allow for “proper investigation into his conduct while in office,” a information have surfaced in a link between the suspension and that of the Central Bank governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele.
Immediately after the suspension, the Department of State Services (DSS) invited Bawa for interrogation.
Sources said Bawa arrived the headquarters of DSS at about 9:02pm.
The spokesman of the DSS, Peter Afunanya confirmed Bawa’s presence.
“Bawa arrived a few hours ago. The invitation relates to some investigative activities concerning him”, Afunanya said in terse statement.
Bawa’s suspension was contained in a statement from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) and signed by the Director, Information, OSGF, Willie Bassey on Wednesday night.
“This (suspension) follows weighty allegations of abuse of office levelled against him,” the statement said.
Even though none of the allegations was mentioned in the statement, credible sources informed that apart from just asking him to hands off till he is investigated, President Tinubu and those around him were angered by the role played by Bawa in the naira redesign policy of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
While the naira redesign and cashless policy were meant to address monetary and fiscal issues, Tinubu and others said the timing was wrong and targeted at them to lose the election.
Recall that Bawa had a few months ago said that he was privy to the naira issues.
In a separate interviews he had said many politicians had amassed billions of naira outside the banking sector.
He said following the naira redesign policy, some governors had made moves to pay salaries in cash in order to dispose of the old naira notes.
The suspension of Bawa comes less than a week after Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), was also suspended on June 9 by the president, who ordered a probe of the apex bank, Daily Trust had reported.
Besides, news reports on Thursday morning were also recalling assertions by Bawa a year ago that quoted him as saying that President Tinubu was under EFCC probe, an insinuation some allege may have also provoked the suspension and sent him from office like Emefiele.
