The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has alleged that a former governor and two ex-ministers are behind planned protests targeting the agency.
This claim was made by the EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale, during a press briefing at the Strategic Communications Inter-agency Policy Committee on Thursday in Abuja.
The EFCC had earlier warned on Wednesday about anticipated protests orchestrated by certain groups aiming to discredit the agency.
In a significant development, 259 civil society organizations, grouped under the Coalition for Transparency and Economic Reform, have reportedly withdrawn their participation in the planned protests.
According to Oyewale, these groups decided to pull out after discovering the involvement of the former governmental officials, whom they believed compromised the protest’s intentions.
Oyewale said, “I received a report that about 259 civil society organisations under the aegis of the Coalition for Transparency and Economic Reform came out publicly on Wednesday to dissociate themselves from the so-called protests.
“If you have 259 civil society organisations coming out publicly to say that we are not going to support you (protests), then, their moral base is totally weakened.
“Even this same group, they are saying that their own intelligence shows that an ex-governor, and two former ministers, according to them, are the arrowhead behind the so-called protests. That is their own intelligence.
“We also have our own intelligence, but the sum and substance of everything is that the protest is not in the overall interest of the nation and that youths should be wary so that they will not be recruited, they will not be used as cannon fodders in a cause that they really don’t understand.
“So, you can see that across the country, the Commission is receiving very, very reliable support, including the media and every stakeholder in the anti-corruption project.
“Generally and holistically, all of these people that are talking about end the EFCC, don’t end EFCC, kill EFCC, don’t kill EFCC, they are people that are tangentially affected by the activities of the commission.
“If you have a commission like the EFCC, you are not receiving some kind of an attack, it either means that we are not effective, or the public is not concerned about what we are doing.
“So, we know that, yes, our activities are affecting people that have one thing or the other to hide, and we know that it’s natural that they want to fight us.
“And that’s why we came out publicly to say that tomorrow, the planned protests, what they have said is not what they actually mean. And we have a responsibility to tell the public.”
Oyewale said the attacks on the EFCC were a result of its ongoing fight against corrupt elements in the country.
He said, “Generally and holistically, all of these people that are talking about end the EFCC, don’t end EFCC, kill EFCC, don’t kill EFCC, they are people that are tangentially affected by the activities of the commission.
“If you have a commission like the EFCC, you are not receiving some kind of an attack, it either means that we are not effective, or the public is not concerned about what we are doing.
“So, we know that, yes, our activities are affecting people that have one thing or the other to hide, and we know that it’s natural that they want to fight us.
“And that’s why we came out publicly to say that tomorrow, the planned protests, what they have said is not what they actually mean. And we have a responsibility to tell the public.”
Oyewale warned parents and guardians to prevail on their children not to join protests on the issues they have no clear understanding of.
