The Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu has called on Nigerians to be more open and volunteer more credible information to the EFCC in order to boost the whistle blowing policy of the government.
He gave the charge on February 7, 2019 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, at a Town Hall Meeting on “Whistle Blowing and the Fight Against Corruption In Nigeria”.
According to him, whistle blowing ranked as one of the most practical means of detecting and reporting fraudulent activities. He therefore, urged more Nigerians to embrace it and be ready to offer useful information to anti- corruption agencies on suspected fraudsters.
He said: “The anti-corruption war is for every Nigerian and the Whistle-blowing Policy is one out of many ways of combating graft.
“We should be open and ready to contribute our quota towards fighting the menace of financial and economic crimes.”
Magu, who was represented at the event by Usman Muktar, scored the government’s whistle blowing policy high, adding that, “as at May 2018, it had yielded considerable recoveries of over N527 Billion, $53 million, and £122,89”.
He expressed optimism that more progress would be made as more Nigerians embraced the policy.
In his welcome address, the Coordinator, African Centre For Media & Information Literacy, AFRICMIL, Chido Onumah, charged Nigerians to play more active roles in the fight against corruption by lending more support to the Policy.
“As Nigerians, we must be aware that the fight against corruption is not one to be left for the government alone,” he said.
The representative of the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit, Johnson Oludare, expressed satisfaction with the progress made so far by the government regarding whistle blowing, stressing that the synergy of law enforcement agencies and cooperation of many Nigerians with the government was hugely responsible for the success. He therefore, called for more involvement and public ownership of the anti graft programme of the government.
The Town Hall Meeting was also attended by representatives of Civil Society Organisations, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Code of Conduct Bureau, National Orientation Agency, among others.