In a statement released on on Sunday, while speaking during an
interaction with journalists at an event in Lagos at the weekend, a
former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
Mrs. Farida Waziri, said she was glad in retrospect that ex-President
Goodluck Jonathan sacked her from office.
According to a report by PUNCH,
she said had she not been sacked, she would have been traumatised by
now, given the ongoing revelation of alleged grand corruption that took
place under Jonathan’s administration.
Waziri said the EFCC under Jonathan was not given free hand to
operate, saying she got the first indication of it during the probe of
the fuel subsidy scam, adding that it was her refusal to back down from
the probe of one of the masterminds of the fuel subsidy scam that earned
her a dismissal by Jonathan.
She was said to have been asked to react to the revelation about
the alleged grand sleaze that took place under Jonathan’s watch.
She said; “I’ m only glad that those things didn’t happen under
my watch as the EFCC Chairman because it would have been too traumatic
for me. And that is why if I see President Jonathan today, I will kneel
down to thank him for the honour done me by removing me as the EFCC
Chairman at the time he did.
“My first strong premonition of what was ahead was when I began the probe of the monumental oil subsidy fraud going on then.
“I came to Lagos on a vital intelligence on the subsidy scam
and as soon as I arrested a key culprit I got a call from the
Presidential Villa asking me to release the suspect, because in their
words, ‘ he is our person ’, but I refused to let him off and days
after, I was removed from office,” Waziri was quoted to have said.