The new Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman, Ola Olukayode, has said the anti graft agency under his watch would work harder to prevent corruption by plugging leakages. Speaking, yesterday, during his screening on the floor of the Senate, Olukoyede said instead of spending more money fighting corruption, he would spend less by preventing it, adding that the time has come for all anti-corruption agencies to focus more on prevention than enforcement.
Recall that Olukoyede’s appointment by Mr President was greeted with protests from some Nigerians, who said it did not comply with the Act establishing the agency. However, the new czar of the EFCC said enforcement is a very strong tool in the hands of the agency, which it is going to apply very seriously. He said: “The savings of an average civil servant in Nigeria all through his service years cannot build the type of houses they are building and cars they are riding.
“The problem we have is just like the proverbial monkey that was locked up in a cage with a bunch of ripe bananas. The owner stood outside with a cane. The monkey would either eat the bananas, get beaten and be alive, or allow the bananas to get rotten and die of hunger.”
On the criminal justice system he said: “To encourage our criminal justice system to work, the substance should be taken above technicalities. We must encourage our criminal justice system to adjudicate in such a way that it will not drag for a very long time.
“Prosecution should not be allowed to last for a maximum of five years from the court of first instance to the Supreme Court. The Senate can work on that very seriously.
“If we make the administration of the criminal justice system work, you will see the great work the anti-corruption agencies are doing.”
MEANWHILE, the embattled Senator representing Adamawa North Senatorial District, Elisha Abbo, has apologised over his allegation that Senate President Godswill Akpabio plotted his removal by the Court of Appeal.
Abbo tendered his apology while speaking in an interview on Arise Television, yesterday. He said: “I have to say with all sense of humility and responsibility that the statement we issued, yesterday, was premature and based on available information at our disposal.
“As of today, we have discovered a lot of things, and yesterday, I had a discussion with the Senate President, and I am convinced that he is not involved.”
He quoted Akpabio as saying to him: “I swear by my mother’s grave that I’m not involved; I don’t even know that you’re in court.” Abbo, however, further noted that for the number three citizen to swear by his mother’s grave, a woman that he loved so much, a woman who brought him up after he lost his father at the age of six, I don’t see a reason why he would lie.”
Source: The Guardian
