Yesterday we reported Former President Olusegun Obasanjo saying the appointment of Mrs Farida Waziri by late President Yar' Adua as Chairman of EFCC was a big mistake and she was put into office through James Ibori strings. If you missed the news check HERE.
Former Chairman of the EFCC, Farida Waziri on Wednesday described the claim by ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo that she was recommended for the EFCC job by convicted former Delta State Governor, James Ibori as a "blatant falsehood".
“I will like to warn that those who live in glass houses don’t throw stones and as such Obasanjo should not allow me open up on him. Respectable elder statesmen act and speak with decorum”.
Expressing shock that a man who was twice a Nigerian leader would “descend so low to peddle falsehood,” Waziri warned Obasanjo to respect his age or else she would “open up on him.”
She said, “The truth is that I never met Ibori in my life until after months in office as chairman of the EFCC when I used to see him in the Presidential Villa. It is on record today that I initiated the investigation that drove Ibori into the waiting hands of the Interpol and the Metpolice.
“As such, it is illogical and nonsensical for anyone to continue to insinuate that Ibori had a hand in my appointment. I remember this was one of the lies Obasanjo’s sit-tight pawns cooked to stop my appointment as the EFCC chairman in 2008.”
Obasanjo had in an interview he granted Zero Tolerance, a magazine published by the EFCC, also said that the war against corruption in the country slowed down during Waziri’s tenure because she was not qualified for the job.
Obasanjo had said: “Go and look at her track record. Go and look at the condition or the qualification; go and look at the type of interaction that anybody holding that job will have with a similar organisation elsewhere; did Waziri have that type? What connection did she have with FBI? What relationship did she have with Metropolitan Police in London? It’s not a picnic.”
