Ex-President says ex-EFCC boss was hired to attack him

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has fired back at claims made by former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Farida Waziri, that he sacked her to protect someone she was probing.

The former EFCC boss had claimed the former president had asked her to release a suspect that was linked to Jonathan's presidency and had been sacked because of her refusal.

Contesting the claim on his Twitter account on Wednesday, November 15, 2017, the former president dared Waziri to mention the name of the person involved.

He further alleged that failure to provide a name would mean that the former EFCC boss was hired to attack him.

He tweeted, "If Farida is not telling lies she should mention the person or company she was investigating and she was stopped, let the investigate. Crime has no statute bar. If she can't then she was simply hired to attack me."

Waziri's allegation

Waziri had been quoted as saying, "I came to Lagos on a vital intelligence on the subsidy scam and as soon as I arrested a key culprit, I got a call from the Presidential Villa asking me to release the suspect, because, in their words, 'He is our person', but I refused to let him off and days after, I was removed from office.

"I’m only glad that those things didn’t happen under my watch as the EFCC Chairman because it would have been too traumatic for me. And that is why if I see President Jonathan today, I will kneel down to thank him for the honour done me by removing me as the EFCC Chairman at the time he did."

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Waziri served as EFCC chairman between May 2008 to November 2011.