December 30, 2008
In a desperate effort to ward off a probe into her corrupt activities, Mrs. Farida Waziri has sent out an alarm through the Nigerian local media about a phantom plot to discredit the Yar'adua regime by first discrediting the EFCC.
Mrs. Waziri's antics were aimed at diverting attention from a series of detailed reports by our investigators who have uncovered details of her life of profligacy and her acceptance of illicit monetary and material gifts from people who are current or potential targets of the EFCC’s investigation. Her corrupt enrichment has upset some agents of the EFCC who are releasing information about what one of them described as “madam’s embarrassing closeness to some of the people we are investigating – or should.”
Mrs. Waziri's self-serving alarm comes on the heels of discreet questions about her style being raised by a few members of the Yar'adua regime troubled at our revelations. A source told SaharaReporters that these insiders are advising Yar’adua not to ignore various acts of corruption reported against Mrs. Waziri.
In the midst of such pressure on Yar’adua to take a look at Mrs. Waziri’s indiscretions, our correspondents learned today that some EFCC agents close to Mrs. Waziri's EFCC squad had collected a large sum of money from Mr. Francis Edemobi, the younger brother of Dr. Dora Akunyili. Akunyili, the Director General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), was recently cleared by the Senate as a ministerial nominee.
An investigation by our correspondents indicated that Dr. Akunyili had asked Mrs. Waziri to investigate the EFCC agents’ scamming of her brother, but Mrs. Waziri demurred. In frustration, the NAFDAC head took up the matter with Yar'adua who in turn asked the SSS to look into the issue.
One of our source said part of Mrs. Waziri’s strategy is to scare off critics of her poor handling of the anti-corruption agency by equating their questioning of her methods and lifestyle to a larger plot to undermine the equally insecure and unpopular Yar'adua government.
“Madam is capitalizing on the insecurity of the Yar'adua regime to scare everybody from even looking at her,” said a source within the PDP who is close to her.
Waziri has been ostracized by the EFCC’s erstwhile international partners. Speaking off the record, one European Union official in Abuja said the EU was dismayed to see Waziri’s “deliberate weakening of the agency’s anti-graft impetus.”
The US is off-limits to her and the London Metropolitan Police have virtually cut off all links with her agency. Earlier this week, three US senators wrote a strongly worded letter to Yar'adua asking him to make fresh commitments to fight corruption. Privately, an aide to one of the senators told our correspondent that, with Mrs. Waziri as EFCC chair, “a commitment to fighting corruption will be a tall order.”
Two EFCC agents told us that Mrs. Waziri was increasingly using a parallel structure outside of the EFCC to conduct the agency’s business. “These structures have largely engaged in corruption,” one of them said.
Mrs. Waziri even created a so-called “civil society” arm within the EFCC. Some of the extra-curricular groups were involved in distributing EFCC invitations to the failed " National Anti-Corruption Revolution [ANCOR]" seminar she organized last week.
One EFCC agent told us that the seminar was a waste of money by an agency that has reduced the crusade against corruption to “periodic press statements decrying corrupt acts, even as Madam parties at night with the men we should be dragging to court.”
The seminar was so inept and lackluster that most Nigerian newspapers tucked the event into inside pages, even though Yar'adua was in attendance.
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