Abdulrasheed Bawa, the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been elected President of the Network of National Anti-Corruption Institutions in West Africa (NACIWA).
According to a statement on the EFCC’s official Facebook handle, Bawa was elected on Monday at the ongoing Annual General Assembly of the institutions.
Mr Bawa succeeds Francis Ben Kaifala of the African Union Advisory Board and Head of Sierra-Leone Anti-Corruption Agency whose three year-year term ends on March 31, 2022.
- Mr Bawa assured members of the network that he will do everything within his powers to take NACIWA to the next level.
- Mr Bawa joined the EFCC as an Assistant Detective Superintendent (ADS) in 2004. in October 2015, he was appointed to head the commission’s investigations of Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former Minister of Petroleum Resources and her associates.
- Bawa who is the youngest appointed EFCC boss till date has successfully investigated and testified in the prosecution of many cases leading to convictions and recovery of looted funds in Nigeria.
- He graduated from the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics (Second Class Upper) in 2001.
- He also holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs and Diplomacy which he obtained from the same university in 2012.
- NACIWA is a regional network created by national anti-corruption institutions at the initiative of ECOWAS in 2010. It serves as a forum for exchanges and consultation between national anti-corruption institutions in ECOWAS member countries.
- The network is made up of fourteen (14) member-countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.