Attempts by Mrs Farida Waziri, the sacked chairman of the Econ-omic and Financial Crimes Commission to unmask the cabal milking the nation of billions of naira from subsidy on petroleum products was a key factor that influenced her sack, sources close to the ex sleaze-buster have revealed.


President Goodluck Jonathan unceremoniously sacked Farida on Wednesday as the boss of the anti-graft agency without any explanation.
However, staunch associates of Mrs Waziri who asked not to be identified insist that her intense investigation of the activities of members of the cabal benefiting from the billions of naira paid out yearly as oil subsidy by the government was a major factor that led to her removal.


The sources said following persistent complaints by the government over the fuel subsidy fraud, Mrs Waziri went to work, using the Monitoring and Intelligence Unit of the commission, to investigate and obtain sufficient basis for prosecution of the profiteers.


This special unit which she had created on assumption of office 42 months ago, ensured pro-active gathering of information to facilitate investigations, even in the absence of petitions.


The unit, they claimed, made steady progress early this year in the investigation, with one member of the cabal interrogated and penciled down for arrest and prosecution, pending approval by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke.


The EFCC’s report was said to have indicted several top officials of virtually all the oil and gas companies involved in the importation of petroleum products. Some officials of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation and the Petroleum Product Pricing and Regulatory Agency were also allegedly indicted.


The sources said Farida, armed with these facts and figures, subsequently sought approval to arrest and prosecute the indicted persons, "but opposition from the Justice Ministry and some influential people in the presidency stalled her efforts."


It was claimed that Farida’s insistence on approval for the arrest and prosecution of the indicted cabal members, "who are mainly financiers of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party eventually got her into trouble with many powerful people in government." It was gathered that the cabal subsequently resolved to work round the clock to ensure her sack.


The source said further: "Farida’s case was dragged before the President on Tuesday November 22, by the powerful oil subsidy mafia and a meeting was held same day for several hours in the Presidency. At the end, it was decided that she should be sacked to prevent her from embarrassing the cabal who provide funds for the PDP."


Some of Mrs Waziri’s aides xpressed shock that the Jonathan administration that had all along complained about the activities of the oil subsidy cabal milking the nation of trillions of naira, "would turn around to sack a woman working to arrest and prosecute the criminals."
Efforts by those with a soft spot for Mrs Waziri in the Presidency to swing the tide in her favour based on her track record failed, it was learnt.


However, attempts to get a response from the office of the Attorney General of the Federation last night was futile as calls to the mobile phone of his media aide went unanswered. A text message to the line yielded no reply too.


The sacked EFCC boss’ tenure was characterized by bitter confrontations with the AGF. For instance, she had to contend with accusation that she was unqualified for the job having not been made a substantive Assistant Inspector General of Police before her retirement.


Though she inherited some high profile cases from her predecessor, Farida took over 65 of such high profile cases to courts in three years, with another 1,500 other cases pending in courts, securing over 400 convictions during her 42-month tenure. These represent about two-third of all convictions secured since the establishment of the commission in 2003.


The EFCC under Farida’s leadership also made recoveries of over N1.5 trillion or $9 billion for government, private companies and individuals in the last three years.


But she received hard knocks from critics for what was seen as a penchant for creating a media blitz over investigations even in the face of insufficient evidence against the accused persons.


The Jonathan administration has frequently complained about the huge amount spent on fuel subsidy, citing it as one of the major reasons his administration has resolved to remove the subsidy on fuel.


For example, whereas N240 billion was budgeted for oil subsidy this year, the federal government is said to have so far spent N1.5 trillion as at August.


Apparently piqued by the recent geometric rise in the subsidy on petroleum, when compared with what was spent in the early part of the year, the Senate Joint Committee on Petroleum Resources has commenced a probe of the current fuel subsidy management.


So far, key government figures like the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and her Petroleum Resources counterpart, Mrs. Deziani Alison-Madueke have appeared before the Senate committee.

am just tired of all these people.i keep on saying it "we need a revolution".

So are we to suddenly believe she has been working underground all these while (with nothing to show for it on the surface)? For all we know, she may have been gathering the info in order to "blackmail" the so called "cabal" and have a bargaining chip for her share of the loot!

Manchy7531 you can lead the revolution. you will get all the support