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IGP orders removal of senior police officers from EFCC.

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IGP

The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali, has ordered an immediate withdrawal of senior police officers attached to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The development signals a simmering hostility between the two law enforcement agencies with a longstanding history of collaboration that has helped the anti-graft agency to meet its personnel needs since inception.

This newspaper, late Tuesday, obtained a copy of the IGP’s letter dated April 15, 2021 asking the EFCC chair, Abdulrasheed Bawa, to release all senior officers from the rank of Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), and above, attached to the commission.

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) boss, Abdulrasheed Bawa. [PHOTO CREDIT: Bashir Ahmad Twitter handle]

The letter, signed on behalf of the IGP by his Principal Staff Officer, Idowu Owohunwa, an acting commissioner of police, cited “the current operational requirements” as the reason for the withdrawal of the police officers.

The correspondence (with reference number, CB: 3380/IGP.SEC/ABJ/VOL.3/547) which was said to have been received with “shock” by the commission, also directed the affected officers to report to Mr Owohunwa by 10a.m. on Wednesday “for further instructions.”

“I write to extend the warmest regards of the Inspector General of Police and to inform the Chairman that the Inspector General of Police has directed the withdrawal of all Senior Police Officers from the rank of Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) and above attached to your agency.

“This decision is informed by the current operational requirements of the Force. You are accordingly requested to kindly direct the immediate release of the concerned Officers who are to collectively report to the undersigned on Wednesday, April 21, 2021 at 1000hrs for further instructions,” the read in part.

In addition, the IGP also requested the EFCC chair to “avail this office (IGP office) the comprehensive nominal roll of all police personnel attached to the EFCC to include their date of transfer and designations in the agency for the purpose of updating our records.”

 

Wide gap in EFCC?

PREMIUM TIMES understands that 25 CSPs performing crucial operational roles at the EFCC are affected by the IGP’s directive which is bound to have an immediate negative impact on the commission’s operations.

The development is coming barely two months after Mr Bawa assumed office as EFCC chair and less than two weeks after Mr Alkali was appointed acting IGP.

The anti-graft agency, which was said to have been shocked by the IGP’s directive, is worried that the development came at a time when it has yet to take full benefit of the resources it expended on training the officers.

“These are officers holding crucial positions at the EFCC. A lot of resources have been expended on them to train them to work for the commission, and the commission has not taken full benefit of its investment on them.

 

“They are sectional heads in the commission with many detectives under them receiving training from them. Some of them are even currently handling crucial national assignments on behalf of the commission. This is going to create a wide gap within the commission,” a top EFCC official, who asked not to be named because of lack of authority to speak to the media on the matter, told PREMIUM TIMES.

There has been a longstanding collaboration between the police and the EFCC in the area of deployment of police officers to the commission as detectives and for other operational roles.

All previous EFCC chairpersons since inception had policing background.

Mr Bawa, a pioneer cadet officer of the commission, is the first chair of the anti-graft agency without policing background.


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Don’t accept wike’s deceptive Financial bribe- IPOB warns IMO communities

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IPOB

The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB has warned the people of Ohaji Local Government Area of Imo State against ceding their land to Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State.

IPOB cautioned the people of Ohaji against accepting Wike’s alleged satanic and deceptive financial inducement.

Emma Powerful, the spokesman of IPOB, issued the warning in reaction to an alleged illegal and undocumented ceding of communities in Ohaji Local Government Area to Wike.

Powerful warned that ceding their communities to Wike would affect their children’s future; hence such a deceptive move should be rejected.

He urged the communities to treat whoever is persuading them to change their state of origin as a criminal.

Powerful noted that accepting to change their state of origin for the sake of N150,000 monthly is evil.

A statement by Powerful reads partly: “Following an illegal undocumented treaty to cede communities of Ohaji Egbema LGA from Imo State to Rivers State via a crooked financial inducement by current Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike.

“We the global family and movement of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) under the command and leadership of our great leader Mazi Nnamdi KANU wish to warn that such project is called to a halt to avert inevitable consequences.

“We suggest to the communities that fall into this deceptive venture masterminded by Nyesom Wike to retrace their steps, considering that this singular act could attract futuristic destructive effects.

“IPOB was intimated with the information regarding Governor Wike’s plan, which includes conditional future promises and haven gone through these moves realized that Wike will abandon them in future because governor Wike cannot be in charge of Rivers State beyond his tenor as a current Governor.

“It is a known fact that the Imo State government failed in their obligations as it concerns the predicaments they are facing in that area, but they must forget Wike with his satanic offer. Wike’s deceptive offer would harm them and their children in the future as such may not be sustainable by successive governments. Moreover, the Biafra restoration approaches hastily.

“IPOB is advising them to retrace their steps and watch what God Almighty has in stock for them; changing God Almighty’s plans for children will harm the communities in the future, for God to have placed you where you are today does not mean that he has abandoned you.

“The communities or anybody persuading them to change their State of origin identity and be acquired like slaves with cash value of N150 (One Hundred and Fifty Naira Only) is evil and must be treated as criminal because we don’t see where old men and women, youths and educated people would allow such an undocumented territorial treaty due to hunger and abandonment.”


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2023 elections: Pastor David Ibiyeomie tells Nigerians who to vote

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Pastor David Ibiyeomieof Salvation Ministries has addressed Nigerians on those to vote ahead of the 2023 general elections

Ibiyeomie urged Nigerians to vote for politicians with a vision for the country and not a politician.

He gave the remark while addressing his members at the church’s headquarters in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Pastor David Ibiyeomie noted that anyone who collects money to vote in the forthcoming election sold their conscience, stressing that electorates should vote for a statesman.

According to Ibiyeomie: “If you take money to vote, then you have sold your conscience. When we are shouting, you people will say I don’t shout. I am shouting now. Don’t collect bribes to vote, vote for your conscience.

“Don’t vote party again in Nigeria; vote for someone who has a vision. Nigeria is in the woods; she needs someone who has a vision.

“No politician should be voted; vote for a statesman instead. A statesman thinks of the next generation, a politician thinks only of the 2023 general elections.”


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Interpol arrests three Nigerians for international scam

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Interpol

The International Police (INTERPOL) has arrested three Nigerians over alleged global scam.

The trio were arrested in a sting operation conducted simultaneously in a Lagos suburb, Ajegunle and in Benin City, 300 km to the East of the commercial capital.

One of the scammers, Hendrix Omorume has been charged and convicted and now faces a 12-month prison sentence.

The three men, aged between 31 and 38, were each arrested in possession of fake documents, including fraudulent invoices and forged official letters.

The investigation was conducted in conjunction with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The operation is part of a global operation codenamed “Killer Bee” involving INTERPOL National Central Bureaus (NCBs) and law enforcement in 11 countries across Southeast Asia.

According to INTERPOL’s Director of Cybercrime, Craig Jones, the organisation had “to alert Nigeria to a serious security threat where millions could have been lost without swift police action.”

The laptops and mobile phones seized by EFCC during the arrests, were examined by the INTERPOL to help confirm the systematic use of “Agent Tesla” malware to access business computers and divert monetary transactions to their own accounts.


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