Matawalle: EFCC Chairman Demanded $2m Bribe from Me

Okocha Chuks in Abuja

The fight between Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State and the Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is getting more interesting as the Zamfara State governor has accused the helmsman of the anti-graft agency, Abdulrasheed Bawa, of demanding $2 million bribe from him.

He made the allegation amid the growing rift between the governor and the anti-graft agency.

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

But the EFCC Chairman responded that he had nothing to hide and asked Matawalle to petition appropriate authorities if he had any evidence against him.

In an interview with BBC Hausa yesterday, Matawalle insisted that Bawa could not be trusted.

“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 to 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 office, I am telling you within 10 seconds probably more than 200 people will bring evidences of bribe he collected from them. He knows what he requested from me but I declined.

“He requested a bribe of $2 million 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.”

Contacted for reaction, Wilson Uwujaren, spokesman of the anti-graft agency, said he had not seen the story so he could not respond.

He was told that it was on BBC Hausa where Matawalle spoke, he said he could not speak Hausa and asked that the story link be sent for a response, but he had not responded at the time of filing this report