Features
Updated: March 12, 2021

LIFE: Meet Abdulrasheed Bawa, The New EFCC Chairman Whose CV Wows The World

By Adedayo Babatunde
March 12, 2021
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Abdulrasheed Bawa, a 40-year-old Nigerian detective and law enforcement agent appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari as the new Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) is set to break records and write history with the wealth of experience he has gathered over the years.

On Tuesday, February 16, 2021, President Buhari through his media aide, Femi Adesina announced the appointment of Bawa as the proposed Chairman of the Commission and sought Senate approval following the corruption scandal that enmeshed the agency by its previous leaders.

On Wednesday, February 24, 2021, the Nigerian Senate after a thorough grilling process confirmed Buhari’s appointment of Bawa as the new substantive chairman of the anti-graft agency.

His appointment, however, marks the beginning of a new era for an organization that has gone through nearly five years of leadership uncertainties and months of a probe that smeared its integrity.

Also, Bawa's appointment which comes with historic distinctions will put to rest agitation by “core EFCC staff” to have one of their own to head the commission after the suspension of the former acting head, Ibrahim Magu.

The Kebbi State-born operative, who is the fifth person to hold the position, will be the first non-police officer, first career operative, and the youngest person to head the agency since its establishment by former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration in 2003.

During his screening process by the Senate, Bawa told the lawmakers about his credentials and achievements in his 16 years of working at the EFCC chambers and promised to rebrand the commission.

He also assured the lawmakers that the EFCC under his watch would work closely with strategic partners around the world, particularly in the recovery of looted assets, and ensure more transparency and accountability in its activities.

Meanwhile, before his appointment as the EFCC boss, Bawa, a pioneer EFCC cadet officer from Course One in 2005, was the head of the Lagos zonal office of the commission.

Prior to his ascension as the Lagos State zonal head, he rose through the ranks to head the Ibadan and Port Harcourt zonal offices of the commission at various times.

Bawa who officially assumed office as the EFCC boss on Friday, March 5, 2021, has promised to fight corruption with a proactive and intelligence-driven method.

Bawa, who is, however, expected to leverage in steering the organization in the right direction, is known for going as far as employing the services of young and external lawyers to ensure speedy prosecution of corruption-related cases.

How Abdulrasheed Bawa's Curriculum Vitae Wows The World

Abdulrasheed Bawa's Curriculum Vitae (CV) revealed that at 40 years, he has successfully investigated and prosecuted some of Nigeria's most notorious corruption cases with a good number of high-profile personalities at the commission, leading to convictions and recovery of looted monetary and assets across the world while serving under previous chairpersons in recent years.

As the Deputy Chief Detective Superintendent, Bawa headed the EFCC's investigations into the corruption allegations against the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke, accused of looting billions of naira from Nigeria’s treasury from 2015 till date.

He also led the team seeking to extradite the former minister from the United Kingdom where she relocated shortly before the inception of Buhari’s administration.

He supervised the investigation of the controversial oil deals involving Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts (AEDC) Ltd that cost Nigeria huge sums of money between 2011 and 2015 while spearheading the $6.8 billion petroleum subsidy fraud scandal that rocked the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

He was also in charge of the former Governor of Niger State, Mu'azu Babangida Aliyu's case. Aliyu is being prosecuted for the alleged laundering of N2 billion belonging to the state government as he allegedly led the team on shady crude oil swap deals in which Nigeria lost billions of naira between 2014 and 2015 among others.

His CV also reveals that his team recovered millions of dollars worth of property in Nigeria, the U.K., the U.S.A., and the U.A.E including 92 of such assets in Nigeria.

Bawa led the EFCC’s “Operation Cyber Storm One” in which more than 60 suspected advance fee fraudsters and cybercrime perpetrators were prosecuted in 2008 and participated in several other periodic raids on “notorious (419) Cyber-cafés”, the sort of operations from which the EFCC records the lion share of its convictions.

Bawa who has secured over 442 convictions as the head of three zones, headed the Capacity Development Division, EFCC Academy, Abuja from December 2019 to August 2020 before he was deployed to head the commission’s operations zonal office in Lagos in August 2020 and remained in the position till the date of his appointment as the EFCC boss.

He has also headed Port Harcourt Zonal Office from January 2019 to December 2019, overseeing Rivers, Bayelsa, and Abia state operations, and oversaw the Ibadan Zonal Office covering Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo and Kwara states from June 2018 to January 2019.

During his tenure in Ibadan zonal office, Bawa supervised 113 cases and 54 were concluded and charged to court within six months. While in Port Harcourt, he recorded 215 convictions in 11 months.

In 2019, he headed the counter-terrorism and general investigation/pension unit as well as the head of the advance fee fraud section team at the Lagos zonal office. He was the head of the economic governance team at the Abuja zonal office.

Bawa, who is now the EFCC boss, is part of the Nigerians trained by world-class institutions in the United States. He was trained by the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

He was also part of the financial analysis and domestic cooperation training at the Global Training Consulting in London, the United Kingdom in 2008 and attended the United State Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Training of Trainers in 2007.

He was accused of corruption during his time as the EFCC zonal head in Port Harcourt, when petrol trucks confiscated from suspected looters were allegedly auctioned off under controversial circumstances which he was reportedly detained for some days over the allegations and later transferred to the EFCC Academy in Abuja.

Upon assumption to office, Bawa said he is keeping an eye on two key things: flushing out corrupt personnel from the commission and prosecuting cases notwithstanding political affiliations.

According to him, “We are not angels. There are some bad elements within the system, but they are negligible elements, we are fishing them out and charging them to court.

“We need the help of Nigerians; those that are corrupting them and those that know about their acts. Let them come forward with this information and you are going to see what we will do and what we have been doing with the corrupt elements within the system.”

He added, "EFCC is for Nigeria and all Nigerians, we are striving to do our best based on the mandate given to us.”

Also, on the date he assumed office he said, “There is a difference between fighting corruption and fighting corrupt people; and going forward, we are going to be proactive in our approach in the fight against economic and financial crimes.

“For our strategic partners across the shores of this country, we will continue to work together with you. We will continue to share intelligence, to see that the stolen wealth of this country is returned for the betterment of us all.

Brief History Into Abdulrasheed Bawa's Life

Abdulrasheed Bawa who was a Deputy Chief Detective Superintendent (DCDS) before his ascension as the new chairman of the anti-corruption agency was born in 1980 and hails from Jega, Kebbi State.

He obtained his Primary School Leaving certificate in 1991 and SSCE in 1997 at Model Primary School Birnin-Kebbi Road, Sokoto, and Government Secondary School, Owerri respectively.

He graduated from the Usmanu Dan Fodio University, Sokoto, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics, with Second Class Upper in 2001 and also holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs and Diplomacy which he obtained from the same university in 2012.

Bawa, who joined the EFCC as an Assistant Detective Superintendent (ADS) in 2004, is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Law degree at the University of London.

As one of the pioneers of EFCC Cadet in 2015, Bawa has spent all his work life at the agency and presently has about 17 years of experience on the job as a detective.

He worked as the Zonal Head of the EFCC in Lagos and Oyo States and was deployed to head the commission’s operations zonal office in Lagos in August 2020 and remained in the position till his appointment.

Bawa has vast investigation experience and has been part of the prosecution of advance fee fraud, official corruption, bank fraud, money laundering, and other economic and financial crimes related offences.

He was nominated and confirmed as the EFCC Chairman by President Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian Senate on February 16 and 24, 2021.