Femi Babafemi, the spokesman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has denied issuing a statement claiming the commission was losing focus and that its chairperson was therefore considering resignation.
Femi Babafemi, the spokesman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has denied issuing a statement claiming the commission was losing focus and that its chairperson was therefore considering resignation.
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In a telephone interview with Saharareporters this afternoon, Mr. Babafemi said, "My email was cloned by some people; I did not issue the statement credited to me."
In the statement upon which Saharareporters based the story, the EFCC heavily criticised the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mr. Mohamed Adoke, for intruding into the activities of the agency.
“The activities of the AGF office are embarrassing to the commission and have brought us in bad light to the public perception on the fight against corruption,” the statement said, adding that it had made the agency to "lose focus."
The statement came to Saharareporters twice today from the email address with the name of the EFCC spokesperson. Mr. Babafemi has always used private email addresses to make contact with us, but he now claims that the address was "cloned" by detractors of the agency. Mr. Babafemi did not say whether those responsible for it used the address for any other business or email.
EFCC RAISES ALARM OVER FRESH BLACKMAIL PLOT
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has described as cheap blackmail and an act of desperation by disgruntled elements
a widely circulated statement credited to the anti-graft agency in which spurious and ridiculous allegations were made against the Attorney General of the Federation , Mr Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN as well as the EFCC Chairman, Mrs Farida Waziri.
A statement by the Commission on Tuesday November 16, 2010 accused those behind the fake statement of cloning the e-mail address of the Commission's spokesman, Femi Babafemi and using same to send their own statement to media organisations including on-line publications some of which had already published the so-called statement which was written in bad language and taste.
The Commission wishes to disown the statement in its entirety and urge all those that may have received it as well as the general public to disregard it as it is not in any way related to the reality of things on ground in the EFCC.
"The statement is just one of the numerous antics of crooks to set the office of the AGF against the EFCC in their desperate bid to cause confusion and disaffection between the two personalities heading the two public offices. They have tried this before now by sponsoring various publications attacking either the AGF or the EFCC chairman as a ploy to create the impression that such publications were sponsored by either of the two officials against the other.
"We wish to assure the masterminds of this criminal act that this is yet another of their failed plots to want to escape justice using all manner of crooked means. If they have failed to deter us from continuing their investigation and prosecution by killing and maiming our officials, sending of bomb threats and others, then their latest antic of trying to set the AGF against the EFCC will equally fail.
"We wish to emphasize that the EFCC chairman is not contemplating resigning her appointment on a non-existent ground that the AGF is interferring with the work of the Commission. The support of the AGF for the anti-graft agency has in no small measure helped to facilitate the recent successes recorded in the war against corruption especially some high profile convictions recorded by the EFCC.
"We also wish to assure the criminal minds behind the latest plot that we will continue to work with other security agencies to trail and track them no matter who they are", the statement stated.
Femi Babafemi
Head, Media & Publicity
EFCC, Abuja
16/11/2010
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