Nigeria’s secret police, the Department of State Services (DSS), has reportedly recovered over N580 million from former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa.
Bawa has been in DSS custody since June 2023 following his removal from office by President Bola Tinubu.
Sources say that the former EFCC chairman has coughed up over N580 million illegally acquired during his time as the head of the agency.
“Over N580 million has been retrieved from the incarcerated former chairman of the anti-graft agency, EFCC,” one of the sources told SaharaReporters.
This comes amid pressure on the DSS to either release Bawa or charge him with offences the secret police’s investigation has found that Bawa committed.
President Bola Tinubu suspended Bawa indefinitely as the chairman of the EFCC in June “to allow for proper investigation into his conduct while in office” following “weighty allegation of abuse of office leveled against him”.
Bawa was taken into custody by the DSS on June 14 hours after his suspension by the president and has since remained in detention.
In August, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) threatened to sue President Tinubu’s administration over the continued detention of Bawa by the DSS without arraignment for proper charges.
Similarly, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, knocked President Tinubu’s administration over the continued detention of Bawa and the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, without trial.
