The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged the new Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulraheed Bawa, to re-engineer and restore professionalism in the anti-graft agency.

In a statement issued on Sunday, National Publicity Secretary of the party Kola Ologbondiyan asked Mr Bawa to avoid the pitfalls of his immediate predecessor in office, by resisting all-partisan pressures to use the agency as a tool for political persecution, harassment of dissenting voices, settling of personal scores as well as for personal enrichment, as witnessed under the last chairman.

The party noted that such tendencies eroded professionalism in the EFCC compromised its activities and diminished public confidence with regard to fairness, impartiality and evenhandedness in the handling of cases.

The new EFCC Chairman is reminded that the EFCC was articulated and established by the PDP administration to fight corruption and not as a tool for oppression and intimidation of innocent Nigerians for political and other unjustified reasons.

The PDP notes that for the first time, the Chairman of the EFCC is drawn from the pool of trained investigators of the commission and Nigerians expect the new chairman to bring the benefits of his training to bear by sanitizing the system and restoring professionalism in line with international best practices.

The party however urged the new EFCC Chairman to bear in mind that, given his young age and training, he should exhibit the ideals of the Generation-Next Nigeria in reciprocation of the confidence Nigerians reposed in him.