Amos Dunia, Per Second News ---Abuja - Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Lamorde, has described as shocking the protest against the prosecution of some corrupt individuals in the country by some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), which caused a melodrama at the premises of the agency some weeks ago.
Lamorde therefore threw a challenge to CSOs in the country to look inwards and fully support the anti-graft agency in its concerted efforts aimed at ridding the country of economic and financial crimes.
Represented by the Director of Operations of the EFCC, Olaolu Adegbite, at a Share Fair workshop with the theme; “Fulfilling its mandate: Government Leading Anti-Corruption Efforts”, organized by the CLEEN Foundation, in Abuja, Lamorde noted that it was essential for the society at large, including the CSOs, to see themselves as partners with the EFCC, in the war on corruption.
Lamorde’s comments which came on the heels of an alleged sponsored protest by a rented crowd on the aegis of Coalition of Civil Liberties and Equity that was staged at the premises of the EFCC Abuja office.
He said that the EFCC believes in engaging with the civil society groups, as well as non-governmental organizations. It has therefore got to a point, where we now have to sieve those who are partners in progress, from those who though parade themselves as civil society organizations, are actually tools in the hands of some corrupt individuals in the country that we are investigating and prosecuting.”
The EFCC boss explained that the commission receives tones of petitions every year which they go through carefully adding that those that are based on frivolous accusations are thrown away.
Speaking at the event, Abdul Rahman Mansaray, a senior prosecutor with Sierra Leone’s Anti-Corruption Commission, said corruption is a monster that deprives people of better life, adding that it is essential to have the political will to fight corruption as the starting point.
According to him; “And luckily for us in Sierra Leone, there is that will to prosecute the corruption war. President Ernest Bai Koroma gave the commission the much needed independence, because we prosecute cases without having to wait to receive a go-ahead from the Attorney General of the Federation."
Also speaking, the head of the Investigative unit of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Adedayo Kayode, who represented the commission’s chairman, Ekpo Nta, noted that prevention was very essential in the corruption war which should be balanced with prosecution.
In his own remarks, the Director –General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Joe Abah stressed the importance of the Freedom of Information Act, urging Nigerians to utilize it as part of their contributions in checking corruption in the society.
He said; “The most important tool in the corruption war is perhaps the Freedom of Information Act, and in my view, it is the most powerful with the exception of the Nigerian Constitution, which all Nigerians must take advantage of.”
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