*The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission highlights the need for enhanced partnerships with other organisations to raise public awareness on its activities, and emphasise the importance of integrity among Nigerians

Isola Moses | 绿帽献妻

In what could be described as hypocrisy of some sort, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has lamented that as most Nigerians condemn corruption in the economy, some others yet rally around corrupt leaders when they are being prosecuted.

Mr. Ola Olukoyede, Executive Chairman of EFCC, stated this Friday, January 31, 2025, while receiving officials of the Centre for Crisis Communication (CCC), led by Chris Olukolade, in Abuja, FCT.

Olukoyede averred that underdevelopment would be a thing of the past, only if every citizen sees corruption as a common enemy.

The EFCC Chief noted: 鈥淓verybody is crying that Nigerians are corrupt, that the system is corrupt, that corruption is killing us and destroying our system.”

He, however, said collaboration and synergy with the Centre would boost strategic communication and public engagement.

Public support is crucial to the success of EFCC, he asserted.

Olukoyede also said the anti-graft regulatory Commission would partner to raise public awareness on its activities, and the importance of integrity among Nigerians.

The Executive Chairman further stated: “When we investigate high profile cases and arraign people in court, the same people will carry placards and be supporting corrupt leaders.

“It doesn鈥檛 show that we are serious about this fight.”

He as well opined: “The fight is supposed to be a collaborative effort.

鈥淣o single agency can do it alone. It is practically impossible for us as EFCC to fight all the battles.

“The society has a role to play; policy has a role to play and the issue of welfare of the citizens has a role to play.鈥�

Crime prevention better than regulatory enforcement: Olukoyede

Underscoring the importance of addressing systemic corruption in the country, Olukoyede spoke on the trajectory of his leadership thus far.

Under his watch, Olukoyede stated that his leadership has prioritised prevention over enforcement since coming on board.

Besides prevention, the Chairman of EFCC equally identified the leveraging of intelligence gathering in the work of the Commission as instrumental in some recent string of successes the Commission has recorded.

On new Directorate of Fraud Risk Assessment and Control

The EFCC Chairman said: “Now we are laying more emphasis on prevention which is a critical aspect of our mandate.

“We don鈥檛 have to always be waiting for money to be stolen before we start working in EFCC.

“To drive prevention, I established a new directorate called Fraud Risk Assessment and Control, FRAC and now we are doing more of blocking of the leakages.”

He noted: 鈥淲e have access to GIFMIS (government payment platform). We want to track and see where every money, released is going.

“We want to ensure that every capital project is executed. With prevention, we discovered that there will be less to enforce.”

Olukoyede restated: “We are not dropping our mandate on enforcement. As a matter of fact, we are scaling it up.

“But we believe that it is important for us to prevent because it costs less to prevent than to react when the deed must have been done.”

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