Date Published: 06/08/09

10 years of Democracy: Politicians stole N285bn —EFCC  

Farida Waziri

Amidst rising poverty and failed infrastructure, former governors, ministers, senators and other categories of public servants allegedly swindled Nigerians of about N285.4 billion in 10 years of the return to civil rule.

Of the amount, reported loot by ex-governors, ministers and senators amounted to over N102 billion.

Other public officers including members of the House of Representatives, political party officials, board members, civil servants and others from the private sector allegedly looted public money amounting to over N183 billion.

However, of the amount only a paltry N50bn has been recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

These were the highlights of a media parley yesterday in Abuja to mark the first year in office of Mrs. Farida Waziri as Chairman of the commission.

Speaking at the event, Waziri revealed her frustration in prosecuting corruption cases while frowning at the slow pace of litigation in the country though she said the commission had achieved conviction in 65 corruption cases.

A breakdown of the looted funds indicated that former governors and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stalwarts formed the bulk of heavy looting.

According to EFCC, trial of the former governors was at different stages of prosecution but hampered by slow pace of the judicial process and alleged connivance between the accused and the judicial officers, especially, lawyers to frustrate trial.

A document entitled "On-going high profile cases’ gave details of the alleged looting indication that former Gov. Ayo Fayose is facing trial for allegedly looting N1.2 billion from the coffers of Ekiti state.

The document also indicated that former deputy National Vice-Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chief Olabode George allegedly swindled government of N100 billion while serving as Chairmnan of the Board of Nigerian Ports authority (NPA).

Others include; Saminu Turaki (N36 billion); Orji Uzor Kalu (N5 billion); Chimaroke Nnamani (N5.3bn); Michael Botmang (N1.5 bn); Prof Babalola Borishade (N5.6bn); Boni haruna (N93million); Femi Fani-Kayode (N250million); Rasheed Ladoja (N6bn); Prof Adenike Grange (N300m); Sen. Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello (N10m) and Jolly Nyame (N180m).

Also on the list are Sen. Nichola Ugbane, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu and others (N6.2billion); Four Managers of Zenith Bank Plc (N3.6billion); Molkat Mutfwang and others (N636m); Dr. Ransome Owan and others (N1.5billion); Tom Iseghoghi and others of Transcorp (N15 billion); Kenny Martins (N7.7billion); Patrick Fernandez, an Indian businessman (N32billion); Eider George, an Australian businessman (N5.6billion); Nyeson Wike, Chief of Staff to Governor Rotimi Amechi of Rivers State (N4.6 billion) and Roland Iyayi, a former Managing Director of FAAN (N5.6billion).

Waziri also disclosed that the list of former governors who had looted their state treasuries will only increase as the commission is tying up loose ends in the cases involving Bola Tinubu of Lagos State and Peter Odili of Rivers state.

On Odili, the EFCC boss said legal steps have been taken to seek an invalidation of the restrictive injunction secured by him against arrest and prosecution by the commission.

She noted that the commission had secured the services of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria to challenge the order and seek its lifting so as to pave way for his arrest and prosecution.

Commenting on her activities in office in the past one year, Mrs. Waziri said she has been able to develop a new anti-crime software, EagleClaw, which according to her would change the face of the war on cyber crime in the country.

She said: "Project EagleClaw is software that sniffs out all fraudulent e-mails and monitors them with the option of shutting down such mails. This means that when fully deployed, all 419 mails emanating from Nigeria will either be monitored or be shut down."

The EFCC boss also said that the deployment of GoAML and GoCase softwares, which had been redundant, helped the commission in tracing a money laundering case involving officials of Zenith Bank Plc.

Expressing confidence in the future of anti corruption war in the country, Mrs. Waziri called on Nigerians to join the fight so as to enable the country achieve appreciable reduction in the level of official corruption even as she said her greatest frustration comes from the courts.

She noted however that the commission had initiated dialogue with leadership of the judiciary and the bar association to seek ways of enhancing litigation so as to achieve more results.