By Tunde Johnson, Abuja
Farida Waziri, former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has said she was glad in retrospect that ex-President Goodluck Jonathan kicked her out of office.
A statement by the former helmsman of the commission on Sunday in Lagos said if she had not been sacked, she would have been traumatised by now, given the ongoing revelation of alleged grand corruption that took place under Jonathan’s administration.
Waziri said the EFCC under Jonathan was not given free hand to operate, saying she got the first indication of it during the probe of the fuel subsidy scam.
She said it was her refusal to back down from the probe of one of the masterminds of the fuel subsidy scam that earned her a dismissal by Jonathan.
“I’m only glad that those things didn’t happen under my watch as the EFCC Chairman because it would have been too traumatic for me. And that is why if I see President Jonathan today, I will kneel down to thank him for the honour done me by removing me as the EFCC Chairman at the time he did.
“My first strong premonition of what was ahead was when I began the probe of the monumental oil subsidy fraud going on then.
“I came to Lagos on a vital intelligence on the subsidy scam and as soon as I arrested a key culprit I got a call from the Presidential Villa asking me to release the suspect, because, in their words, ‘he is our person’, but I refused to let him off and days after I was removed from office,” Waziri was quoted to have said.
