Acting Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, has expressed the readiness of the Commission to partner relevant stakeholders in the sports industry with a view to checking corruption within the system.
He described sports as a great platform that provides valuable investment capable of boosting the economy, stressing that “the sector is too critical to be left in the hands of the corrupt”.
Magu made this disclosure in Abuja on Tuesday, August 7, 2018 during the unveiling of the official logo for the first national anti-corruption marathon race tagged “Abuja Marathon 2018”.
The marathon race, which is an initiative of the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports Development, Nigeria Olympic Committee, NOC, Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, in partnership with Fair Play Sports International Agency, is organised to raise the consciousness of people of diverse segments on the ills of corruption in honour of President Muhammadu Buhari’s fight against corruption in Nigeria.
Magu, who spoke through Mohammed Saleh, EFCC’s Sports Committee Chairman, identified areas of corruption in sports to include match fixing, embezzlement or misuse of sport funds, corruption in hosting of games, corruption in changing sports results, corruption in transfers of players and corruption in elections of sporting bodies.
“We will look at corruption in sports which might be very similar to political corruption” he assured.
On the contribution of the EFCC to the upliftment of sports and the fight against corruption, the anti-graft czar said that, “the EFCC has a professional sports team, the EFCC Football Club as part of its social responsibility in creating more awareness about the ills of corruption”.
Describing sports as a ‘unifying factor’, Magu said that the Commission had provided a platform for the Nigerian youths to develop their talents and build career in sports.
According to him, “The EFCC FC, founded in 2007 has a robust management team, technical team, players and officials. The team won the FCT FA Cup in 2017”.
Highlight of the occasion was the unveiling of the official logo for the first national anti corruption marathon by the Minister of Youths and Sports Development, Solomon Dalung, who called on the EFCC and ICPC to launch investigation into cases of corruption within the sports sector.
“I urge the anti-graft agencies to demonstrate commitment by resolving cases of corruption in sports currently being investigated and encourage all Nigerians and every stakeholders to be good ambassadors of this initiative”, he said.