The Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
EFCC, Ibrahim Magu on Tuesday, April 30, 2019 tasked in-coming and
returning governors on the need to shun corruption.
He made the charge at the induction ceremony for the governors-elect and
their returning colleagues at the State House, Abuja.
Magu who was among the panelists at one of the sessions of the event,
stated that the twin evils of corruption and terrorism- financing, which
have continued to bedevil the country have created a disastrous impact
on governance and socio-economic advancement of the country.
According to him, “whether we like it or not, corruption and terrorism
have become the twin evils, undermining our collective efforts to make
Nigeria a truly great country.”
He further stated that Nigeria’s failure to take full advantage of its
natural resources could also be attributed to corruption as public
office holders are in the habit of constantly pillaging public
resources.
The anti-corruption czar observed that the country’s loss to corruption
in the last decade runs into trillions of Naira, noting that a review of
the recoveries between 2017 and now, shows that in 2017, the EFCC
recovered N473.065billion, $98million, €7million and £294,000, while
N236.16billion was recovered in 2018, which give just an insight into
what had been stolen so far.
The EFCC boss explained that the nexus between corruption and terrorism
is that corruption promotes insecurity.
“Indeed some development scholars are of the view, which I also
subscribe to, that militancy in the Niger Delta and insurgency in the
North-east are by-products of corruption,” Magu said.
He congratulated the governors-elect and urged them to make the fight
against corruption a cardinal point in their administrations.
“If we can curb corruption, we can checkmate terrorists’ activities,”
he said, adding that the only certain way for their re-election is to do
what is right and take a stand in favour of the fight against
corruption.