The Senate has confirmed the nomination and appointment of Abdul Rasheed Bawa as the new EFCC Chairman.
The new anti-graft boss, who graduated from the Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics (Second Class Upper) in 2001, joined the EFCC as an Assistant Detective Superintendent (ADS) in 2004.
He also holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs and Diplomacy which he obtained from the same university in 2012.
According to his resume, the new anti-graft boss has spent about 16 years working with the EFCC as a detective, and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of London.
He was part of the pioneer EFCC Cadet Officers, course one, 2005, as he rose through the ranks to become a Deputy Chief Detective Superindent (DCDS), a position he has been holding since 2016 up till the time of his nomination as the anti-graft agency’s substantive chairman.
He has vast investigation experience and has been part of the prosecution of advance fee fraud, official corruption, bank fraud, money laundering, and other economic and financial crimes related offences.
Notable cases handle by Abdulrasheed Bawa as EFCC investigator
1) Supervising the biggest operations zonal office of the EFCC in Lagos having 604 officers and men and securing 227 convictions despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
2) Supervising the investigation of all cases in Port Harcourt Zonal office in which an unprecedented 215 convictions were secured in eleven months and securing Final Forfeiture of hundreds of properties to the Federal Government.
3) Supervising the investigation of all cases in the Ibadan Zonal office in 113 were concluded and 54 are charged to court within 6 Months.
4) Diezani Alison-Madueke-2015-Date: Recovered Millions of Dollars worth of properties in Nigeria, UK., USA, and UAE including 92 properties in Nigeria.
5) Atlantic Energy Group-2014-2015: Recovered Millions of Dollars worth of properties in Nigeria, UK, USA, Switzerland, UAE, and Canada.
6) Crude Oil Swaps and OPA-2014-2015: Recovered Billions of Naira.
7) Petroleum Subsidy Fraud-2012-2015: Identified Fraud of about N70Billion, Recovered Billions of Naira, and Prosecuted several companies.
8) Former Governor of Niger State, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu
9) “Operation Cyber Storm One”, across Nigeria in which over 60 Suspected Advance Fee Fraudsters and Cyber Crime Perpetrators are on prosecution- 2008
10) Participated in several other Periodic Raid on Notorious (419) Cyber-cafés.
He is a recipient of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Merit Award (2020); US Federal Bureau of Investigation (U.S. Department of Justice) Recognition Award (2019), for facilitating the collaboration between EFCC and the FBI, which resulted in a mutual fight against Economic and Financial Crimes on an international scale; and US Federal Bureau of Investigation (Criminal Investigative Division) Appreciation (2019) in recognition of his support and contribution in FBI’s Operation rewired, which resulted in nearly 209 arrests worldwide.
Bawa, born 40 years ago, is the youngest person to ever lead the organization which has been without a substantive head since November 2015. He stepped into the highly coveted office at 40 years of age unlike his predecessors. The pioneer chairman of EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu, assumed office at about 43 in 2003 and left in 2007. His successor, Farida Waziri, assumed office in May 2008 at 59 years old and left on November 23, 2011. The last substantive chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde, stepped into office at 49 years old on November 23, 2011, and left on November 9, 2015 as well as Ibrahim Magu, who chaired the agency in acting capacity for almost five years. He took over from Mohammed Umar, who has been in acting capacity since July 2020 after the suspension of Ibrahim Magu over allegations of corruption.
Not much his known about his immediate family but he is married with children. He likes to watch football, tennis, reading, current affairs and more.