The Coalition of Activists Against Corruption in Nigeria (CAACIN) has called on the Department of State Security Services (DSS) to open up on their findings on the alleged corrupt practices leveled against the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa.

The Spokesperson of the Coalition, Comrade Ahmed Aliyu, in a statement on Thursday, wondered why the DSS kept a sealed lip on the report of their investigation, in the over four months detention and interrogation of the erstwhile EFCC Boss in their custody in 2023.

Stressing the need for the EFCC to arraign Bawa to court if there is a need for the action, the coalition argued that the position is in the best interest of the nation.

Justifying their position, it noted: “It is not possible to detain a man of his caliber for 5 months, for nothing. We invite the DSS to make open, the report of their findings. There were multiple corruption allegations against Bawa, which the EFCC and DSS were also aware. Nigerians can’t afford to let these be swept under the carpet.”

The Coalition’s call is coming barely three days after a group, Citizens Forum for Transparency and Integrity (CFTI), in a statement by its President, Alhaji Aminu Mustapha Gidado, in Lagos, accused Bawa of working secretly with the opposition figures to discredit President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

In what the group described as “coordinated and sinister,” the CFTI alleged that Bawa recently met with key opposition figures in London, where discussions were held on using his former contacts within the EFCC to target four serving Ministers in Tinubu’s cabinet.

The coalition frowned at the rationale behind keeping those appointees and close allies of the ex-Chairman in the commission, two years after he was sacked.

The Coalition argued that the ex-Chairman could use them to sabotage the Commission and the government.

“Keeping those Bawa appointed or employed in his two years sway in the Commission is just to say that the EFCC is sitting on a time bomb, as it would only take time for his loyalists to begin sabotage the fight against corruption and rubbish the integrity of the Tinubu’s anti-corruption stance,” it claimed.

“It is on this note that we demand that the DSS should make the public the report of their investigation. The EFCC should as a matter of urgent necessity, charge Abdulrasheed Bawa to court. The Commission should also purge itself by showing those Bawa brought in, the way out”.

President Tinubu suspended Abdulrasheed Bawa as Acting Chairman of the EFCC in June 2023, exactly two weeks after he took office.

The DSS subsequently picked him same day and detained him in the Yellow House for 134 days without giving a reason for his arrest or disclosing the result of their investigation.