The Senate at its plenary session of Wednesday, 24 February 2021 approved the appointment of Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa as Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) following the screening exercise conducted by the lawmakers at the Committee of the Whole.

The Majority Leader of the Senate, Sen. Abdullahi Yahaya (APC: Kebbi) in a motion informed the Senate of the arrival of Mr. Bawa who was later admitted into the Chamber to commence the screening exercise where he gave an overview of his qualifications, skills, training, and career projections.

During the screening exercise, lawmakers posed questions bordering on Restructuring and Repositioning of the Commission; Disposal of forfeited Assets; Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWO); Fraud and Cybercrimes; Convictions and Asset Recovery; and Overhaul of the Internal Affairs of the Commission including Departments and Units.

Other issues presented to Mr. Bawa focused on ethics and integrity; leadership skills; deliberate harassment of persons by personnel of the Commission specifically political opponents for socio-economic gains; role of media trials and its impact on a citizen’s reputation; training and re-training of personnel; collaborations with the Nigeria Police Force; o-ordinations with the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (if established); and lessons learnt from activities and experiences of previous heads of the Commission, for which lawmakers noted should be actively taken into account for future actions.

Lawmakers unanimously expressed satisfaction with Mr. Bawa’s responses and commended the President, Muhammadu Buhari for recognizing the capacity of Mr. Bawa and nominating him for the position.  It would be recalled that President Buhari had written to the Senate through a letter read at the Plenary session of Tuesday, 16 February 2021 requesting that Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa be confirmed for appointment as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).