[PHOTOS] Alleged contempt: Bawa must go protest rocks Lagos

Some Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have protested the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s alleged disobedience of court orders, calling for the EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, to be fired.

During a protest in Lagos on Saturday, members of the CSOs carrying placards with inscriptions such as ‘Bawa must go,’ ‘EFCC needs a respecter of the law,’ and ‘Bawa, obey court orders’ expressed their displeasure.

Leaders of the group stated that their week-long protest is in response to the EFCC’s alleged politicisation, disobedience of court orders, and violation of Nigerians’ human rights by the anti-graft agency.

The protesters demanded the removal of Abdulrasheed Bawa as chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. EFCC.

The protest was led by Dr. Kolawole Sanchez-Jude, Mr Declan Ihekaire, Mr Cletus Okedube, Mr Johnson Areola, Mr George Sanda, Mr Femi Lawson and a host of other notable activists. 

The protesters, in a statement read by Femi Lawson, said: “The EFCC cannot continue to dehumanise Nigerians on the pages of newspapers, based on unverified political investigations and without proving their case beyond reasonable doubt in a competent court.

“The fixation of the EFCC boss on certain individuals and institutions when grievous petitions capable of bringing the economy down are left unattended, gives the anti-corruption war, under the leadership of Mr. Bawa, a dangerously political colouration.

“It has become a tool used to distract perceived political opponents of certain powerful interests with all manner of unfounded embarrassments promoted in both the conventional and social media.

“We call on stakeholders in the Nigerian project to call them to order.

“Nigeria is not a Police state and we the activists will not stand by while people’s rights are denied them unjustly.”

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