EFCC chair demanded $2m bribe from me, says Matawalle

The Governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle has accused the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa, of demanding a two million dollars bribe from him.

He made the allegation during an interview with BBC Hausa on Friday, amid the ongoing rift between the governor and the anti-graft agency.

Newsmen reports that in a statement on Wednesday, Matawalle called for Bawa’s resignation, saying he had questions to answer on corruption.

However, the EFCC Chairman responded that he had nothing to hide while asking Matawalle to petition appropriate authorities if he had any evidence against him.

However, speaking during an interview with BBC Hausa, Matawalle insisted that Bawa could not be trusted.

Matawalle said, “It is not just to always blame governors. It is not only governors who have treasury, the federal government also has. What does the EFCC boss do to them? As he is claiming he has evidence on governors, let him show the world evidence of those at the federal level.

“If he exits office, people will surely know he is not an honest person. I have evidence against him. Let him vacate the office, I am telling you within 10 seconds probably more than 200 people will bring evidence of bribes he collected from them. He knows what he requested from me but I declined.

“He requested a bribe of two million dollars from me and I have evidence of this. He knows the house we met, he invited me and told me the conditions. He told me governors were going to his office but I did not. If I don’t have evidence, I won’t say this.”

When contacted for a reaction, the spokesperson for the anti-graft agency, Wilson Uwujaren, said he had not seen the story or read the allegation, and hence could not respond.