... Says Public Ownership Vital
To Winning War against Graft
The
Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim
Magu, has said that the anti-graft agency intervened in the recent general
elections in Nigeria, in order to checkmate and prevent the moneybags from
determining the emergence of leaders arising from the polls.
Magu
spoke on Wednesday, May 8, 2019 in Kampala, Uganda, during the ongoing 9th
Commonwealth Regional Conference for Heads of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Africa.
In
a paper titled: “Creative Initiatives in
the Fight against Corruption in Nigeria”, Magu who is also the outgoing
Chairman of the Commonwealth Regional Conference, noted that the EFCC’s
intervention during the Presidential and National Assembly elections on March
9, and the Governorship and State Assembly elections on March 23 paid off with
positive results.
While
disclosing that huge cash of different denominations were seized from
politicians and their associates, Magu added that arrested perpetrators of the
infamous act were already being prosecuted, just as a councillor from Gombe
State has been convicted.
Magu
said: “For the first time in the history of electioneering in Nigeria,
operatives of the Commission were deployed to monitor polling stations and
collation centres to discourage vote buying.
“The
efforts culminated in some cash seizure and arrests. Some of those arrested
have been prosecuted and convicted. The presence of EFCC operatives, according
to some of the election monitors, was a major deterrence to dubious politicians
and their associates.
“With
the general election slated for first quarter of 2019, the focus of the
Commission’s enforcement activities in 2018 was checking money laundering and
illicit financial flows. Steps were taken to explore the relationships that
exist between the EFCC and other ACAs especially in the West African sub-region
to tighten the screws and make trans border cash smuggling difficult.
“Part
of these efforts saw me visiting my colleagues at the Higher Authority Against
Corruption and Relating Crimes, HALCIA in Niger Republic and the Economic and
Organized Crime Office, EOCO, in Ghana.”
Intelligence,
he added, was also stepped up to track cash movements within and outside the
banking sector.
He
said: “Strategic deterrence meetings were held with compliance officers and
chief executives of deposit money banks and Bureaux De Change to prevail on
them not to allow their institutions to be used as platforms for money
laundering by politicians.
“International
airports and other exit ports in the country were placed under surveillance,
leading to huge cash seizures at a few Airports.”
Sharing
his experience and the achievements of the EFCC under his watch, Magu revealed
that the agency secured 189 convictions in 2017 and recovered more than N437
billion, $98 million €7 million and £294,000.
Magu
said: “We have sustained the momentum. Indeed, the Commission’s movement into a
new head office complex, which commissioning was witnessed by some of you,
energised the workforce, resulting in dramatic improvements in all the mandate
areas of the Commission.
“In
the last one year, the Commission almost doubled its conviction return with a
record 315 convictions in 2018 and over N236.16 billion worth of assets
recovered. Assets forfeited in the year include 350 properties, 141
automobiles, 100 real estate, three vessels, 37 plots of land, two hotels, one
barge, gas petrol stations and 44 bank accounts.”
Regarding
the tackling of corruption, the EFCC boss said there was the need for the
people to own the fight, saying that the way forward remains active
participation by the people and other stakeholders.
Magu
said: “Tackling corruption in a complex multi-ethnic society with a population
of nearly 200 million people requires a robust prevention strategy. There is so
much the anti-corruption agencies can do without a buy-in by the people.
“Public
ownership of the fight against corruption is therefore pivotal to any quest for
success in the fight against corruption In Nigeria or elsewhere.”
Speaking
on inter-agency relationships, Magu said, “As an agency which is not used to
working in silos, the EFCC consistently strives to assist other agencies of
government in tackling corruption. This quest in 2018 saw the Commission assist
the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, in recovering N6,316,041,396.21 in
unremitted tax revenues. It equally assisted in the recovery of the sums of
N541,975,000 for the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON. The
Commission recovered N1,590,039,312.54; N1,760,000,000.00 and N1,030,246,938.51
for AMCON, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, and FIRS respectively, from
January to April, 2019.”
No comments:
Post a Comment