Saturday, September 14, 2013

Farida Waziri denies writing Obasanjo, threatens legal action

Former chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
Farida Waziri has disowned a letter she purportedly wrote asking
former President Olusegun Obasanjo to intervene to allow her secure a
second term.
Mrs Waziri said the letter was "total forgery" and threatened legal
action against those responsible for the forgery.
"The letter is a total forgery. I had no such contact or communication
with former President Obasanjo," she told PREMIUM TIMES. "I might
consider legal action against them because what they have done is
criminal."
In the letter, printed on a purported EFCC official headed paper, Mrs
Waziri allegedly promised to reward the former president by turning
the EFCC against his opponents and critics if he would prevail on
President Goodluck Jonathan to approve a fresh term for her.
The letter was distributed to media organizations on Friday and has
been published on several outlets. PREMIUM TIMESdid not publish its
contents because it could not immediately confirm its authenticity.
The emergence of the letter, said to have been written in the dying
days of Mrs Waziri's tenure, followed recent exchanges between former
President Obasanjo and Mrs Waziri over her credibility and performance
as the head of the EFCC.
In separate interviews in Zero Tolerance, a magazine published by the
EFCC media unit, Mr. Obasanjo seriously questioned Mrs Waziri's
competence for the anti-corruption top job, and accused her of slowing
the gains made by her predecessor, Nuhu Ribadu.
He also suggested that Mrs Waziri was appointed on the recommendation
James Ibori, former governor of Delta state, currently in jail for
stealing state funds.
The former EFCC boss denied the allegations and insisted she did well
as head of the commission. She threatened to expose Mr Obasanjo's
shady past.
The sender of the letter she allegedly wrote to Mr Obasanjo made it
clear the note was in response to the threat to expose Mr Obasanjo. He
did not respond to further mails.
In the memo, Mrs Waziri purportedly said she could not telephone the
ex-president for security concerns due to the nature of her request.
She then asked Mr Obasanjo to "compel" President Jonathan to allow her
continue in office, promising to go after former governor of Ogun
state, Gbenga Daniel, for insulting Mr Obasanjo.
To press her point, she recalled the treatment of former House of
Representatives speaker, Dimeji Bankole, by the EFCC purportedly as a
reaction to Mr Bankole's disrespect for the former president.
Mrs Waziri disclaimed the content of the letter and accused a "corrupt
US-based lawyer and a UK-based blogger" of colluding to forge the
letter and circulating it on the Internet.

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