The Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, has hinted on the Commission’s plan to beam its searchlight on the source of funding of election by political parties ahead of the 2019 general elections.
“As the perversion of electoral process and bad leadership fabricated gross financial abuse and encouraged bad governance, the EFCC will be proactively involved in the tracking of election financing and will beam its searchlight on the judiciary and accounting for security budgets as a means of checkmating graft in Nigeria”, he said.
Magu stated this on Wednesday, September 12, 2018 during a media parley with media influencers and other stakeholders at the Commission’s new Head Office, Jabi, Abuja.
According to him, the EFCC is politically neutral in its operations and remains determined to fight corruption to a standstill for the good of Nigeria and the generations to come.
He used the opportunity of the parley to list the major achievements of the Commission under his watch.
According to him, the Commission has so far within this year secured 158 convictions adding that more would still be recorded before the year runs out.
He added that, One hundred and six billion, five hundred and sixteen million, two hundred and twenty two thousand, three hundred and eighty three naira sixty eight Kobo (N106,516,222,383.68); One million six hundred and thirty five thousand, nine hundred and twenty five thousand dollars, eighty one cent (US $1,635,925.81) and Six hundred and twenty nine thousand, one hundred and ninety three pounds, sixty five pence (GBP 629,193.65); and Twenty five thousand, five hundred and seventy five thousand Euros ( EURO 25,575.00) were recovered through the unrelenting pursuit of graft.
The anti-graft czar stated further that, the EFCC recognizes various stakeholders in the effort to combat the cankerworm of corruption threatrning to destroy our country and ruin the future of the next generation adding that such partnership is seen in the collaboration with the Federal Inland revenue Service (FIRS) and the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).
He noted that the drive so far had led to the recovery of money amounting to over N35billion for the FIRS and about N4billion for the AMCON since it was identified that tax liabilities of governmental institutions ran into billions of Naira.
On alleged cases of corruption involving judges and even senior lawyers, Magu said the EFCC had decisively stepped in to put some judges and lawyers on trial and had successfully secured the conviction of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
The EFCC boss solicited the support of the media saying, “the media has the potential to inform and educate the public on the ills of corruption to get a buy-in of the people”
He thanked the media for its support for the Commission in the area of enlightenment and coverage of its activities urging them to do more by exposing the corrupt elements in the society.
The round-table conference featured media executives including representatives from Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE; a popular public affairs analyst, Dr. Joe Abah and Special Assistant to the President on Social Media, Lauretta Onochie.