…As Lawmakers splashes encomium on Olukoyede
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By Dele Ogbodo
Unlike in the past when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is more often at the bashing end of lawmakers, the Senate Committee Chairman on Anti-corruption and financial crimes, Senator Emmanuel Udende, on Monday applauded the agency and its leadership for their performance in the last one year.
In what can be referred to as sweet spot for the anti-graft agency, the Senators acknowledged that the Commission has impressively tackled the menace of economic and financial crimes, with ascertainable proofs. However, time will tell whether the commission will continue to ride on this sweet-spot.
The committee members who were on oversight and pre-budget presentation visit with other members of the Committee to the corporate headquarters of the EFCC, soundly declared that the Committee was satisfied with the performance of the EFCC, adding: “You have done wonderfully well.”
Meanwhile, EFCC’s Chairman, Mr. Ola Olukoyede, has acknowledged that most critics of the Commission persons of legal minds, people who should know better. He added: “A crime that has made us lose over $500 million dollars in one year and somebody said we shouldn’t do it? You present your green passport on a global arena and they mark you out for profiling.”
“Udende, however said: “We have looked at the records, the budget performance, what the EFCC has done in the past one year and we are quite impressed with what they have done.
“Within the year under consideration, they have made several recoveries. Within the one year that the Chairman assumed office, he has recovered so much for this nation and for that reason, we as a Committee want to commend the Chairman for doing a very wonderful job.
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw the report and nobody has come forward to dispute them. As a Committee, we have gone through and are satisfied that they have done a good job. We have gone through the budget performance and we are also satisfied that they have done a good job within the limited resources that they have. The agency needs a lot of money but in the budget processes, we discovered that little was assigned to them and they have achieved this much, I think they need to be commended by every Nigerian,” he said.
In his remark, Olukoyede, urged the lawmakers to be guided in their evaluation by the performance indices of the Commission within the budget year.
On achievements, he said “I am sure you must read the record of our modest achievements in the last one year, particularly in the area of recovery.
“If you are fighting financial crimes, and you don’t make asset tracking and recovery one of the key issues that you have to embark on with all seriousness, you may not be able to go far.
I say this because when the perpetrators of these crimes still have access to the proceeds of the crime, they can go to any extent to fight you.
“We are happy to report to you that in the last one year, we have done close to N250 billion and several tens of millions of dollars and also quite a number of real estates across the country in asset recovery.
Within the last year, we have secured close to 3,500 convictions. Some of these convictions are high profile, not minding what some people are saying. When you approve the annual report that we have sent to you, then we can publish them on our website”
Reacting to criticisms of the Commission in some quarters for devoting time to fight cybercrime, the EFCC boss declared that he can’t take his eyes off cybercrime because it constitutes economic sabotage and inflicts reputational damage on the country.
“You are also aware that upon my assumption of office, I identified economic sabotage as a major problem. There is no financial crime that is too small to investigate and prosecute and no one is too big.
“If you refuse to do the small one today, tomorrow they will become big. So, people should stop criticizing us for investigating and prosecuting cybercrime.
Apart from cybercrime, Olukoyede also identified currency racketeering and dollarization of the economy as economic sabotage.
“I would also like you to know that part of the economic sabotage is in the area of currency racketeering and mutilation and the dollarization of our economy. There is no country in the world that doesn’t regard its currency as a legal tender.
“We must respect the Naira. As I am talking to you now, our Special Task Force is all over the place and we have brought some sanity in the handling of the national currency.
“People are still committing the crime, I am aware of that. This year alone, we have procured over 50 convictions on it.”
Ensuring that the EFCC runs on the wheels of ethics and staff integrity, the EFCC’s boss assured that, “I take the issue of ethics very seriously and I have had cause to dismiss a number of workers on account of it, even as recently as two weeks ago. Upon my assumption of office in the EFCC, I declared my assets and encouraged all others to do the same.”
