• Warns against protest around offices
The Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has revealed that public servants in different Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are moving unspent budget allocation to private accounts in commercial banks.
He made this disclosure in Abuja while receiving the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) management team led by the Chairman, Mohammed Shehu.
EFCC also raised the alarm over plans to instigate protests against it, warning that it would not tolerate any form of protest around its offices.
The spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, who raised the alarm, yesterday, in Abuja, disclosed that the group had been actively campaigning on social media, recruiting impressionable young Nigerians, including students, to take up “arms” against the commission.
According to Olukoyede, the funds were always wired to the banks at midnight before the end of every budget circle. He decried the magnitude of stealing by corrupt elements in the country, especially stealing of unspent allocation in government agencies.
The anti-graft czar stated: “When I look at some case files and see the humongous amount of money stolen, I wonder how we are still surviving. If you see some case files, you will weep. The way they move unspent budget allocation to private accounts in commercial banks before midnight at the end of a budget circle, you will wonder what kind of spirit drives us as Nigerians.”
Asserting that public corruption ranks top in the country, he pointed out that if public corruption was taken out of the polity, the country would fare better than many countries of the world.
He stated, “A situation where somebody would hold a public office or position of trust for years and you call him to account and he refuses is unacceptable.”
While noting that corruption poses a huge challenge to the country, Olukoyede expressed optimism that the prevention mechanisms of his leadership would put the commission ahead of the devices of the corrupt, to ensure good governance.
He insisted that the preventive framework of tackling corruption would offer more prospects of results and impact, revealing that the EFCC now has a Department of Fraud Risk and Assessment and Control.
While assuring RMAFC of enhanced EFCC collaboration, Olukoyede tasked the delegation to continue to support President Bola Tinubu’s efforts to reposition the country.
Shehu lauded the longstanding collaboration between RMAFC and the EFCC and stated that the visit was motivated by the need to explore more areas of collaboration between the two government agencies, especially in the direction of recovery of unremitted or lost revenues.
The campaign, Oyewale claimed, is promoted as resistance to EFCC’s operation, especially enforcement of the laws dealing with cybercrimes. He said, “The commission, while not averse to protests by citizens, is alarmed by emerging evidence that suggests a grand design by corrupt elements under investigation or prosecution by the commission to exploit the so-called protest to orchestrate a national uprising that may threaten the peace and security of our dear nation.
“As a responsible law enforcement organisation, the commission will not tolerate any breakdown of law and order anywhere in the country, especially around its office locations across Nigeria. EFCC, working in concert with sister security agencies, is therefore taking necessary measures to deal with possible threats to the peace and security of the country.”
The spokesman appealed to parents, guardians and heads of tertiary institutions to ensure their wards were not recruited into a proxy war against the commission by vested corrupt interests.
