Abdulrasheed Bawa, the suspended Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, has been moved from the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) headquarters to a private facility, SaharaReporters reports.
On Tuesday, 27 June, Bawa was reportedly moved to another facility to have total control over him after he refused to write any statements in custody.
SaharaReporters had exclusively reported on Wednesday, 21 June, that Bawa had refused to write statements at the secret police’s facility. It was learnt that Bawa told investigators that the DSS had no right to detain him without charges, hence his refusal to write any statements in custody.
However, on Tuesday, SaharaReporters learnt that Bawa had been moved from the DSS headquarters to one of its private facilities.
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A top security source reportedly said: “They’ve taken Bawa from DSS headquarters to one of their private facilities to have total control over him after he refused to write statements requested from him.”
Bawa has been in detention along with Godwin Emefiele, the suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria since their suspension from their respective offices by President Bola Tinubu’s administration over corruption allegations and abuse of office.
It was gathered that Bawa had refused to cooperate with DSS investigators, protesting against his detention without charges.
“The detained EFCC chairman has refused to write statements; he told DSS they have no right to detain him without charges.
“He was also accused of shielding former Governor of Zamfara, Abdulaziz Yari, while helping him to hunt down his opponents,” a source had told SaharaReporters.
“So far since his detention, he has vehemently refused to cooperate with DSS investigators.”
Emefiele reportedly named Bawa as an accomplice in the Naira redesign scam that rocked the country some months ago.
READ ALSO: DSS Grills Suspended EFCC Chairman Rasheed Bawa
Bawa’s invitation and grilling by the DSS came days after Emefiele was arrested and flown from Lagos to Abuja to also face interrogations over alleged corruption and abuse of office.
“Emefiele who is currently cooling his feet in the cell of the DSS is the reason why the EFCC chairman has been detained overnight. Emefiele who is cooperating with the DSS claimed that Bawa was the one who raised a memo to former President Muhammadu Buhari, asking that the Naira should be redesigned to stem money laundering during the 2023 election,” a top source had revealed.
“Bawa confronted him that he (Emefiele) and the former Attorney-General of the Federation, (Abubakar) Malami were the ones that came to him to raise the memo because they suspected Tinubu had warehouses stuffed with naira notes,” the source had added.
In February and March, Nigerians were subjected to extreme difficulty with the Naira redesign and cashless policy due to the scarcity of the new Naira notes.
To make matters worse, Emefiele refused to heed a Supreme Court ruling which made the old notes legal tender till 31 December, before former President Buhari distanced himself from the disobedience to the court order.