The Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, on August 4, 2021 charged members of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, to join the fight against economic and financial crimes in the country. “Add your voice to mine, because the fight against economic and financial crimes involves you and I. I will play my part, you will play yours.”
The EFCC chairman stated this in a sensitization lecture on the Role of Youth in Curbing Cybercrimes presented on his behalf by officials of the Commission at various Orientation camps of the Batch B stream 1 set of corps members.
In Issele Uku, Delta State, Williams Oseghale, Head, Public Affairs Department, Benin Zonal Command who stood in for the EFCC boss, urged the corps members to embrace hard work and shun crime as the consequences were grave. “There is no shortcut to wealth and fame. The fact that the rate of unemployment is high should not be an excuse to resort to crime. Acts of criminality might deliver wealth in the short term but ultimately, they lead to misery.”
He charged Corp members to be role models in their area of primary assignment and to join the EFCC/NYSC CD group for a more enduring and robust engagement. “Youth Corp members are dynamic young men and women whose energy can be harnessed for greater public good by being role models and whistle blowers in their area of primary assignment,” adding that “young people must not be mere spectators in the anti-graft campaign rather, they should be foot soldiers leading the mass rout of corruption and economic crimes out of our land”.
In Agwu, Enugu, Bawa charged the Corps members to embrace the whistle blower policy. DSE Bethel Ude, Head of Public Affairs Department in Enugu Zonal Commend who presented the Executive Chairman’s speech, stated that instead of youths to be mere spectators who sit and lament about the state of the nation, they should join the anti-graft army by becoming whistle blowers. “The message of the EFCC to you all this morning is that you should become whistle blowers in any place where you find yourself by reporting acts that fail the simple test of integrity. It’s no use lamenting that things are not right with our country. We are inviting you to lend a hand in helping us build a society where there is respect for law and order and where impunity is a thing of the past” she said.
Ude encouraged the corps members to serve as role models by shunning all acts of economic and financial crimes including cybercrimes. In her words, “there is no shortcut to wealth and fame. The fact that the rate of unemployment is high should not be an excuse to resort to crime”.
In Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the Head, Cyber Crime Section, Port Harcourt Zonal Command of the EFCC, Chief Superintendent of the EFCC, CSE Bassey Effiong while addressing corps members at the NYSC’s Orientation Camp in Nowa- Gbam, Rivers State admonished
“corps members to embrace hard work and shun crime, Yahoo-Yahoo is not a sustainable way of life. As dynamic young men and women, our desire is to harness your intelligence and energy for greater public good in your areas of primary assignments”.
Also speaking at the NYSC, Orientation camp in Yikpata, Edu Local Government Area of Kwara State, by Ayodele Babatunde, Head, Public Affairs Department of the Ilorin Zonal Command, urged the corps members to take ownership of the anti-graft crusade and channel their fertile minds productively to benefit the country.
“We are inviting you to lend a hand in helping us build a society where there is respect for law and order and where impunity is a thing of the past. We urge you, when you see something, to say something and don’t stop there, please do something. Do not be mere spectators”, he said
He used the occasion to admonish the corps members not to engage in internet fraud or any other form of corruption, which could jeopardize their future.