…Vows to investigate ‘anyone’ found culpable
In view of President’s Tinubu swift response to the alleged financial misappropriation rocking the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ola Olukoyede has stated that the President has set the tone for the anti-graft agency to tackle corruption in the country.
President Bola Tinubu on Monday suspended the embattled Humanitarian Minister Betta Edu and also ordered a panel to review the structure of social investment programmes in the country.
The President tasked a panel that is headed by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance to, among other functions, conduct a comprehensive diagnostic on the financial architecture and framework of the social investment programmes with a view to conclusively reforming the relevant institutions and programmes in a determined bid to eliminate all institutional frailties for the exclusive benefit of disadvantaged households and win back lost public confidence in the initiative.
Speaking when he received the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Dr. Musa Adamu Aliyu at the EFCC headquarters on Tuesday, Olukoyede said the political will of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to fight corruption, as demonstrated in recent events were enough boost for anti-corruption agencies to give their best.
“We believe that with the kind of President that we have, who is willing and ready to do the right thing as demonstrated in the last 48 hours, it is clear that the President is providing the political will and the leadership for the anti-corruption agencies to work and I believe that with this, there’s no hiding place for us and we must ensure that we give our best.
“We are going to give the President the right support and we believe that the courage would be there to take the right decisions. Nobody is too big to be investigated in this country. Once you are not playing to the rules, we’ll investigate you.”
In his remarks, the Chairman of ICPC, Dr. Musa Adamu Aliyu, SAN stated that the visit to the EFCC was a show of commitment to the existing relationship between the two agencies.
He expressed the readiness of ICPC, under his leadership to provide the needed support and cooperation in the interest of eradicating corruption in Nigeria.
“It is important for us to work together, and we cannot do this without a good relationship. That’s why I think I need to extend this hand of friendship to the EFCC so that we can effectively partner in the fight against corruption in Nigeria.
“I am aware that there’s an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) between the EFCC and ICPC and I’m willing and ready to partner whenever there’s any issue of interest in the fight against corruption.
“I’ll be reaching out to my brother and Chairman of EFCC on issues I think we can partner with because there’s no need for us to be duplicating responsibilities, wasting resources and time. I hope with this first meeting, we are going to be meeting regularly to review what we are doing together.”
The EFCC Chairman responding concurred on the position of collaboration saying the meeting had also presented an opportunity for the review of the existing MoU between the two agencies.
“We have areas of similar mandate and with a population of about 250 million people, there’s so much in our hands and I can tell you that the enormity of the work demands that we work together.”
The meeting had in attendance the Chairmen and management staff of the two anti-graft agencies and was aimed to deepen mutual cooperation and synergise efforts for greater impact in Nigeria’s anti-corruption drive and discuss other areas of collaborations.
