The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) has lambasted the US government following a report by the
State Department criticising the President Muhammadu Buhari government’s
anti-corruption efforts.
The US state department’s bureau
of democracy, human rights and labour had said that Nigeria had made little
progress in efforts to limit corruption in its public service.
It added among others that “there
is a climate of impunity in the President Muhammadu Buhari government that
allows officials to engage in corrupt practices with a sense of exemption from
punishment.”
The report said the EFCC and the
Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC),
Nigeria’s two key anti-corruption agencies had broad powers to prosecute
corruption, but rarely applied such powers to conscientiously and logically
prosecute corruption cases.
“In their prosecution of
corruption cases, law enforcement and intelligence agencies often failed to
follow due process and arrested suspects without appropriate arrest and search
warrants,” the report read.
In response to this, the EFCC
issued a statement saying that the “report is not only outdated and false but
misleading.”
“The report is unfounded on the
grounds of Nigeria’s remarkable achievements in the last four years as the war
against corruption is on course,” the commission said.
“The EFCC’s commitment to the
fight against corruption in the last four years is not in doubt to any
discerning and genuinely concerned observer. This commitment is benchmarked by
the unprecedented record of convictions, non-conviction based forfeiture and
stolen assets recovery.”
“We are surprised that the US
report could ignore or downplay our convictions in such a brazen manner when it
claimed that the EFCC secured only 13 convictions in 2016. That is false and
far from the truth.”
The anti-graft agency also
mentioned some of its achievements under the present administration.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the
EFCC has secured 943 convictions since 2015 till date. The agency recorded 103
convictions in 2015, secured 195 convictions in 2016, got 189 convictions in
2017. It is important to state that the EFCC secured 314 convictions in 2018
including two former state governors who were sentenced to 14 years
imprisonment without option of fine. It is instructive to note that the two
former governors serving their jail terms in prison are members of the ruling
All Progressive Congress (APC). The Commission has so far recorded 142
convictions as at March 19 this year. These are verifiable facts,” the
anti-corruption agency said.
The ant-graft agency further
expressed concern over what it called a “report with inaccuracies.”
“Indeed, the US report’s
portrayal of the work of the EFCC which is replete with inaccurate information
is worrisome considering the close relationship between the Commission and some
US entities,” the EFCC said.
“Unfortunately, the US Report
does not reflect this deep knowledge of the EFCC and its work, which is enough
reason to be suspicious about the motives behind the publication.
“From the foregoing, it is clear
that the report authored by the American agency has done a great disservice to
the work of the EFCC in particular and the fight against corruption under the
leadership of President Buhari, an administration that is globally acknowledged
for the enormous political will it has brought to the fight against corruption
in Nigeria.”
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