The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, has highlighted the toll which corruption is inflicting on the Nigerian economy, and appealed to the international community for support to combat the scourge.
This was contained in a statement on Friday by the EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, titled, ‘In UK, Bawa calls on world leaders to rise to the challenge of fighting corruption.’
Bawa spoke while presenting a paper titled, ‘Combating Crime, Corruption and implication for Development and Security,’ at the 38th Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime, organised by the Centre for International Documentation on Organised and Economic Crime, Jesus College, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
The EFCC boss, who was represented by his Deputy Chief of Staff, Sambo Mayana, disclosed that between March when he took office and now, the anti-graft agency has recovered over N6 billion from financial and economic saboteurs.
Citing a report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, he noted that resources that could support a country’s development are lost through criminal acts such as corruption, tax evasion, money laundering, and others.
Bawa noted, “The spoiler effects on countries’ development processes are diverse, and particularly severe for fragile states: economic crime, including illicit financial flows, diverts much needed resources needed to rebuild countries’ public services, from security and justice to basic social services such as health and education.”
According to him, records show that as at August 2021, the EFCC had recorded over 3,408 convictions.
“From the time I took over as the Executive Chairman, on the 5th of March 2021, we have recovered over N6bn; over $161m; over £13,000; €1,730, 200 Canadian dollars; CFA 373,000; ¥8,430 and 30 real estates.
“We have arrested over 1,500 Internet fraudsters, many of whom are being prosecuted,” he added.
The EFCC chair said the absence of substantial improvement in the living condition of the people in Africa and other developing countries despite their natural resources endowment was due to pervasive economic crimes in those countries.
He argued, “The incidence of illegal mining, smuggling of goods, tax evasion, illegal oil bunkering, illegal arms deals to mention a few does not allow the government to receive the full accruals from the continent’s vast resources that are needed for development.
“The revenue generated are embezzled by government officials and their collaborators in the private sector. This does not allow for economic growth and by extension a hindrance to development.”
Bawa said the Federal Government has reportedly spent N6 trillion on the terrorism war since 2008, while about N5.4 trillion was lost to tax evasion by multi-national corporations operating in the country between 2011 and 2021.
This is aside the theft of resources in the nation’s oil and gas sector.
