The new look, resurgent Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is not even playing, it appears.
On Friday, the commission slammed a 24-count charge of stealing on the former Head of Service of the Federation (HOS), Steve Oronsaye, and two others.
Oronsaye and his accomplices were accosted with charges bordering on stealing and obtaining by false pretense, otherwise referred to as 419 in local parlance.
Oronsaye was invited over by the anti-graft agency on Wednesday and was subsequently granted administrative bail. He was ordered to report for further interrogation on Friday.
His case is now before Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
Oronsaye and other top directors of the Nigerian civil service allegedly conspired to defraud the Nigerian nation of N6.2 billion in pension fund in 2013. The stolen sums were meant for biometric enrollment and computer accessories which were never supplied, according to sundry reports.
The fraud was perpetrated through a slew of front companies bearing Oronsaye’s imprimatur.
64-year-old Stephen Osagiede Oronsaye was appointed Head of the Nigerian Civil Service in 1999. He was confirmed as Permanent Secretary, State House, an unusual appointment since he was not a civil servant. In 2006, Oronsaye headed the committee on the review of the Civil Service Rules and Financial Regulations. He was appointed Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance on 20 August 2008.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan had on August 18, 2011, inaugurated a committee to restructure and rationalise the federal government agencies, with Oronsaye as its chairman.