The Economic and Financial Crimes (EFCC) has denied allegations by the Director, Media and Publicity of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organization, Garba Shehu of alleged corruption and insensitivity to staff welfare.
The spokesman of the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, who debunked the allegations at a press briefing in Abuja on Friday, challenged Shehu and any staff of the Commission, who had evidence to prove the issues raised, to come forward, as the commission could not recall being guilty of the accusations.
According to Uwujaren, “the claim that staff of the EFCC are being owed three months salaries is the figment of Shehu’s imagination, as the Commission, in the eleven years of its existence, has never defaulted in meeting its monthly obligations to staff. Who are the staff that are being owed salaries? We challenge Shehu to name names”.
While reacting to the issue of conviction record of corrupt persons under President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, where Shehu allegedly claimed that the EFCC had not secured any high profile conviction, Uwujaren noted that “at a time when the rest of the World are commending the agency for recording 126 conviction in 2014; Shehu elected to dampen its morale with a disclaimer that is based on fact. His claim that the Commission has not recorded any high profile conviction under Jonathan is mischief taken too far. Only those who are not living in Nigeria will believe such hogwish even when a sons of Sule Lamidoa and Murtala Nyoko have been arrested, as we prominent oil barons involved in subsidy scam”.
While expressing the Commission’s non-partisan disposition to the forthcoming elections, as earlier stated in January, Uwujaren however, warned that as the spokesperson of a well-respected General and a presidential candidate in the forthcoming election, Shehu must be careful not to veil his personal views as those of Muhammadu Buhari or the APC as the commission finds it hard to believe that the views raised are those of the former head of state or the opposition party.
Reacting to the welfare of staff of the anti-graft agency, Uwujaren noted that under Lamorde, allowances on the consolidated salary structure have been maintained, staff canteens established in some of the offices of the Commission as well as a housing scheme that would offer employees opportunity of owning a house and pay over specified period; have been put in place.
