The acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu has said that the commission did not mandate anyone to collect bribes or issue invitations to prominent office holders in Nigeria over alleged crimes.
The commission made this known in a statement issued on Tuesday by Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC spokesperson.
According to the statement, the commission said some fraudsters have been extorting ”sitting governors, ministers and national chairmen of leading political parties using the name of the acting chairman.”
“Members of these criminal gangs, from available information, have been writing invitation letters to some politically-exposed persons on the pretext that such communication emanated from the office of the acting chairman of the EFCC.
“The Commission has had cause to issue a public disclaimer of such fraudulent letters, still the criminals are undeterred. The situation is made worse by the fact that not all recipients of such fraudulent invites had the courage to seek clarification,” Mr. Wilson said
“The EFCC wishes to dissociate itself from the activities of these criminal gangs. It is important to state that Mr. Magu has not written or mandated anyone to write any invitation letter to any state governor and has no reason to do so as they belong in the category of officials that enjoy constitutional immunity from criminal prosecution while in office,” he added.
However, the commission urged the aforementioned category of public office holders to be cautious and verify the authenticity any supposed invitation from the acting Chairman of EFCC in order not to be ensnared by fraudsters.
The spokesman alleged that the acting chairman’s email and social media accounts were once hacked by the fraudsters.
“There have been instances in the past in which fraudsters cloned the email and Facebook accounts of the EFCC Chairman and were sending messages demanding bribes from unsuspecting members of the public,” Mr. Wilson said.
“Under no circumstance should members of the public offer gratification to anyone that claims to be an officer of the EFCC. Indeed such demand for gratification is enough indication that an impostor was up to mischief and should immediately be reported to the nearest office of the Commission or police station,” he added
