The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has explained that it is an establishment mandated to fight corruption in the country and never a tool used for witch-hunt as speculated by some people.
The zonal Head of the Commission in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Abdulkarim Chukkol, said this in Uyo on Monday while reacting to allegation that the agency was being used by the All Progressives Congress, APC, to witch-hunt rival parties in the state.
He said the agency worked with facts saying since its offices were opened in the state, it has secured eight convictions and over 256 others across the country over the years.
“We have been in the state for about a year and four months now. A lot of activities have gone on in the state and we secured eight convictions from Akwa Ibom State and 256 across the country.
“We have many cases that are lining up for investigation before we go to court. I can assure you in the coming years we are going to secure more convictions,” Chukkol said.
The zonal head said that corruption war should not be left for the commission and government alone, stressing that the war must be fought by all Nigerians.
According to him, “Combating corruption is the duty of all us. The purpose of this day is to create awareness on the dangers of corruption. All Nigerians must ready, each and everyone has a role to play.”
He said EFCC would continue to work with NGOs and CSOs to create awareness and eliminate corruption from our country.
Earlier in her remarks, the State Coordinator, Social Action Anti Corruption Network in Akwa Ibom, Mrs. Ann Udonte, said that awareness creation and sensitisation should be utilised to mobilise grassroots participation in combating corruption.
Udonte said that corruption was the reason many abandoned contracts were littered all over the state and country.
She said the monitoring exercise conducted to track down projects revealed that 70 per cent of government projects listed in budgets of successive administrations in the state had been abandoned.
She said “The increasing level of abandoned projects across Nigeria has deprived the citizens the benefit of the trillions of naira budgeted yearly for development.
“This process of stealing monies meant for execution of public projects has led to the numerous cases of abandoned projects in the country.”
She called on government in the state to put in place mechanism to institutionalise accountability process in all its operations and also recommended an audit service commission to be established to ensure prudence and sector service discipline into the public procurement and auditing processes in the state.
- DAILY POST
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