The assurance by the Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, that all candidates of political parties who have cases with the agency and are seeking election into various offices in 2019 will be charged to court before the next year’s elections is a step in the right direction. It is, indeed, a welcome relief for Nigerians who had been apprehensive of the fact that some of the nation’s treasury looters who should be having their day in court are instead running for political offices in the 2019 general elections.
The anti-corruption agency boss, who spoke with journalists Sunday shortly after an African Union Youth Congress against Corruption with the theme: ‘Combating Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation,’ held at the banquet hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, also hinted that the EFCC is closely monitoring what politicians are spending on their campaigns.
“By the grace of God, all those candidates that have cases with us on corruption will be charged to court before the election.” When asked to mention names of those involved, he said: “I don’t want to personalise it,” Magu said.
On campaign spending, he said the EFCC is monitoring what the candidates are putting into their campaigns. “It is not only here in this country, we are also partnering with other countries to monitor campaign money,” he said.
When asked to shed more light on the investigation into the allegation of bribery against the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, Magu said: “The case against Ganduje is in court and I would not want to comment on it. As I told you before we are still on it.”
Last week, Magu disclosed that the anti-graft agency has recorded 246 convictions as at November 30, 2018. He also dismissed allegations that the agency is being used by the government in power to carry out witch hunts against the opposition.
“It is not a tool in the hands of anyone, government or individual, either. If your hands are clean, you can go to bed with your two eyes closed. We will never compromise our integrity,” he said. Magu called on the media and all critical stakeholders to actively support the agency to combat the problem of corruption which he said has become a ‘hydra-headed problem’.
Magu’s statement is coming on the heels of the presentation of a compendium of high profile corruption and financial crimes in Nigeria worth over N2 trillion. The report, presented by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA), an anti-corruption NGO, involved 47 former governors, 10 former ministers/presidential advisers, three senators, two judges, among others.
The report was unveiled at an occasion to celebrate the 2018 World Anti-Corruption Day in Lagos. A peep into the report indicated that the cases involved some high profile corruption cases already in the public domain; among them is the infamous $2.1billion arms deal involving a former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd).
Also in the compendium were some beneficiaries of the Dasuki scam which have been either mentioned or being prosecuted by the anti-corruption agencies.
Chairman of HEDA Resource Centre, Olanrewaju Suraj, said the compendium was compiled through the help of researchers. According to him, the extent of corruption in Nigeria is such that people now lack regard for decency.
“What we have done is to bring back to life what is already trending within the Nigerian political circles to the extent that people now even celebrate their being investigated for financial cases with glee. It is not what used to be the experience when we were actually growing up. What we see now is people accused of corrupt practices would still throw up celebration the next day,” he said.
Premium Times founder and Publisher, Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi who presented the report described it as mindboggling. He also decried the failure of Nigeria to prosecute those mentioned in the infamous Panama Papers where many Nigerians were listed to operate offshore accounts.
He said in all the countries where government officials were mentioned in the Panama, it is only Nigeria that nobody has been prosecuted.
Human Rights activist/lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, also noted that few Nigerians had cornered the resources meant to provide social amenities for the citizens. This explains why individuals were burdened with all sorts of requests for support from relatives when it is supposed to be government’s responsibility, he said.
The assurance by the EFCC to prosecute political candidates indicted of corruption is highly commendable on the backdrop of the penchant for governors who have exhausted their constitutional two-term of eight years limit to take refuge in the Senate and seek to frustrate government’s anti-corruption crusade.
The move will also prevent criminals from occupying high offices like those of governors and further rip-off hapless citizens through their brazen acts of corruption and impunity. We, therefore, advise the EFCC to maintain and strengthen this prevention mechanism of fighting corruption which is proactive, more cost-saving and more result-oriented than the retroactive approach.
