Specifically, the Nigerian Tribune was told that EFCC operatives from Abuja were joined by their counterparts in Lagos and, thereafter, moved into positions, verifying some of the documents, before extending their forage into the Federal Ministry of Transport.
The operatives, it was gathered, were targeting certain accounts departments and the procurement units, as well as the unit charged with contract awards, with the sole aim of garnering enough materials, before closing in on the chief executive officers.
“You must understand why this probe has become necessary,” one of the sources said, noting that with the abysmal level of budget implementations and the increasing caustic comments from the lawmakers, the EFCC had come to a point where it must run some verifications.
“We are approaching the entire issue with totally open minds. Some of them were indicated as no longer remitting into the federation accounts. Those that do so, even do it haphazardly,” he stated further, noting that the port operators would begin to feel their presence, perhaps by tomorrow or Thursday.
Meanwhile, The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Monday, claimed that it intercepted about N15.5 billion to be laundered abroad at various airports in the country in the last 12 months.
Chairman of the commission, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde made this disclosure at the 2012 International Anti-Corruption Day celebrations with the theme, “ACT…. Help Detect Corruption Risks Today,” organised by the Inter – Agency Task Team (IATT), comprising of anti–corruption agencies, saying that the amount represented physical cash and not legitimate cash transfer through the financial institutions, taken out through the nation’s airport.
A statement by the commission’s spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, stated that “He ( Lamorde) said N14 billion being couriered outside the country was intercepted at the nation’s airports between January and August, while the operation of a special task team which is a joint patrol of the airport by the EFCC operatives and Nigerian Customs officers which commenced in September 2012, had yielded the arrest of illegal cash courier with over $9 million.
“While linking the illegal transfer and corruption to share greed, callousness and meanness of the people involved, Lamorde gave example of an individual, who was arrested for laundering money in cash to the tune of $7 million in brief case and flying out of the country through the airport.”
He said “corruption is one of the reasons Nigeria has not been able to make progress, socially, politically and economically and we have all agreed that corruption cannot be sustained in Nigeria, all of us must come together to fight corruption.”
The EFCC chairman, who said the funding of the anti-corruption agencies and their operating legislations have to be reviewed, explained that between January and December 2012, the Commission had filed about 353 cases at various courts across the country and had recorded about 53 convictions so far.
“Criminal procedure, rather than judiciary, should be blamed for the problem of slow pace of trial of corruption cases. Somebody cannot steal from you and expect that the law should protect him against you, the victim of his crime. Something has to be done. I pray that the new leadership of the judiciary will be able to do something,” he said.
“He also reiterated the need for a special court to take on corruption cases in Nigeria; “judges are either transferred or the witnesses dead. It is not fair on the anti-corruption agencies to say they are delaying cases. Let cases not last forever. If you think there is no case, please discharge the person but where the person has a case to answer, the case should be concluded in good time.”
Tribune
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