Those indicted in the N2.3billion House of Representatives car purchase scam may soon have their day in court.

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chair Mrs. Farida Waziri said yesterday that its final report and legal advice by its lawyers would soon be submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan.

Mrs Waziri, who spoke in Abuja at an interactive session with journalists, said the EFCC has recovered $3.5 billion and secured over 100 convictions since she took over two years ago.

She also said about 1,200 cases are pending in various courts.

Explaining the rationale behind handing over the report to the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua shortly after the anti-graft agency concluded its investigations, Mrs Waziri said it was simply procedural. The investigation was ordered by the then President, she said.

Noting that there was no time The Presidency interfered with her duties, Mrs Waziri said both the report and the legal advice on the car purchase scandal would soon be handed over to Dr Jonathan so that a decision can be reached on the matter.

She dismissed the insinuation that the report could be used by The Presidency to blackmail any indicted lawmaker.

She said: "We have completed investigation and we sent the case file to Legal. That is the level to which we have gone.

"The report was earlier submitted to President Yar’Adua while the case file is with our Legal Unit at the EFCC. I handed over the report to the former President because the directive to investigate the matter came from his desk. That is why the report was given to him hand-to-hand.

"The new President is barely a month in office and we will soon hand over the report to him, in addition to the legal advice by the Legal Unit of the EFCC. I do not know why the press is concerned about this particular matter, but I can assure you that we have nothing to hide and, very soon, the truth would be known. I doubt if the report can be used to blackmail anybody."

Speaking on whether The Presidency instructed her to slow down on some cases, especially those involving the former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, Mrs Waziri said she had been doing her job without any encumbrances from high quarters.

She also responded to questions raised on the implication of the arrival of the former boss of the anti-graft body, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, for her job.

Mrs Waziri said: "I can tell you, in all honesty, that the President did not influence me on the case involving el-Rufai. What I did is what I have always been doing. The case is ongoing. We arraigned him and he has been granted bail. Nobody inflluenced that. You must also understand that el-Rufai voluntarily came to the EFCC and, based on personal recognition, we allowed him to go.

"I am doing my work and I am committed to what I am doing. I am not bothered by what you call the rise and rise of anybody. I do not think I want to talk on speculation. When we get to that level, we will talk about it."

On the Halliburton and Siemens’ cases, Mrs Waziri said investigations were on and that Siemens’ officials would soon be invited to testify in Nigeria.

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