If reports that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) operative, Mohammed Idris was arrested and locked up shortly after a leaked conversation he had with the younger brother of a crime suspect went viral is anything to go by, then it can safely be stated that the crusade against economic crimes and corruption by President Muhammadu Buhari has spectacularly collapsed. This is according to civil rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA).

HURIWA described the development as worrisome and unfortunate, just as the rights group regretted that large-scale corruption and lawlessness have virtually crippled the national economy of Nigeria, whilst President Muhammadu Buhari is said to be unaware of many things, including grandscale corruption happening right under his nose by his cabinet appointees and directors-general of federal agencies.

HURIWA recalled that an operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, who exposed how Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, allegedly uses his position and influence to order the unfreezing of ‘big cases’ bank accounts has been detained and kept at a facility of the anti-graft agency in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

HURIWA, in a statement on Wednesday endorsed by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Director of Media, Miss Zainab Yusuf, said that its findings from a leading online forum, it asserts that the EFCC operative, who is a lawyer and policeman, Mohammed Idris, was arrested and locked up shortly after a leaked conversation he had with the younger brother of a crime suspect went viral.

Confirming Idris’ arrest and detention on Tuesday, a staff of the EFCC told the online newspaper that the lawyer had been held since December.

Parts of HURIWA's statement reads:

“HURIWA calls the action of EFCC as a crime against anti-graft war just as it expressed disappointment that Corruption was wrestling genuine anti-graft crusaders to the ground of infamy.

“HURIWA recalled that on December 21, 202, it was reported how in the leaked audio conversation with one Abdulbari Yusuf, a younger brother to a retired Rear Admiral and former Director of Navy Accounts, Tahir Yusuf, who was facing charges of corruption, Idris accused Malami of compromising cases of corruption Nigeria.

“The Rights group recalled that the detained EFCC operative while giving Yusuf’s brother hints on how to defeat the anti-graft commission at the Court of Appeal, as well as ways to evacuate money from a particular account, said, 'If he has money in any account linked with his BVN (Bank Verification Number), he should quickly evacuate them. And if he makes transfers, EFCC will still trace it. He should only withdraw and then deposit into another account.

“Against the backdrops of the reported detention of the in-house whistle-blower, the leading Civil society organisation, HURIWA, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to rescue his rapidly failing anti-graft crusade by releasing the detained staff member of EFCC.”

HURIWA said rather than detain him, the federal government should have discreetly investigated his expose and mind-blowing revelation about the parlous and morally deficient State of the EFCC and find ways and means to fix the broken system and give the independence back to EFCC to operate without external interference as alleged in the leaked telephone conversation.

“As Patriots, HURIWA is by this media release calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the EFCC’s Detective detained for blowing the lid on what is even notorious because substantial percentage of Nigerians suspect that EFCC has been hijacked by the Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Alhaji Abubakar Malami, who singlehandedly nominated and railroaded his younger kinsman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, as the successor to the disgraced acting Chairman Ibrahim Magu.

“President Muhammadu Buhari must free this Whistle-blower or we draw the inevitable conclusion that Buhari’s waning war on corruption has eventually collapsed in a very big way and this will rub off on whatever legacies that the outgoing President thinks he wants to bequeath to Nigeria,” argued HURIWA.

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