There are strong indications that the appointment of Abdulrasheed Bawa as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission may signal the reopening of the commission’s probe of a National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
This is following a new letter written by the EFCC, days after the confirmation of his new boss, to the Code of Conduct Bureau, requesting copies of Tinubu’s asset declaration form.
A copy of the letter which was published by an online news medium, The Peoples Gazette, revealed that the investigation into Tinubu began last year after the removal of erstwhile Chairman, Ibrahim Magu.
The letter marked CR/3000/EFCC/LS/Vol4/322, dated November 6, 2020, was signed by the then Lagos zonal head, Abdulrasheed Bawa, who is now the Chairman of the EFCC.
The letter read in part, “In view of the above, you are kindly requested to furnish the commission with the outstanding requested information of Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu.
“This request is made pursuant to Section 38(1) and (2) of the EFCC Act 2004.”
This development is coming almost three years after the anti-graft commission was urged to probe the former Lagos State Governor following some petitions written against him in 2018.
Efforts to initiate the probe, however, hit a brick wall under the watch of Magu; a development which fuelled the speculation that the suspended EFCC czar was one of the donations of Tinubu to the Buhari administration.
Since the petition also came in the buildup to the 2019 general election, it was also speculated that the move to get Tinubu probed was initiated by his erstwhile “political son” and former Governor of Lagos State, Akinwumi Ambode.
It was said that Ambode, whose tenure as Accountant General of Lagos State began in the twilight of Tinubu’s second term, was privy to some alleged shady deals of the APC stalwart.
Speculations were also rife that Ambode made the move to “expose” Tinubu after refusing to give him his blessing for a second term in office.
Meanwhile, there are unconfirmed reports that reopening the probe into Tinubu by EFCC may not be unconnected with his 2023 presidential ambition.
This is because the information in the letter, obtained by the Peoples Gazette, the EFCC sought to specifically probe into the eight-year reign of Tinubu as governor of Lagos State among others.
The EFCC had dragged Tinubu before the CCB during the administration of Goodluck Jonathan.
But the bureau threw out the case as the commission did not have substantial information to nail the former governor.
It is believed that the commission has now gotten more information to think of re-opening the case again.
