Nigerian looters adopting new strategies to evade being caught - Magu raises alarm
- Ibrahim Magu reveals that suspected looters of Nigeria are adopting new strategies to evade being arrested
- Magu, speaking at the 12th delegate conference of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), says EFCC's collaborations with foreign partners are yielding fruits
- The anti-graft agency's boss pleads with the NLC to continue to partner with the commission for the eradication of corruption
The acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, has revealed that some Nigerians who looted the country and plundered its resources have devised new tactics to escape arrest.
Magu said the EFCC has now discovered that some officials of banks used by these alleged looters collude with them to engage in illegal financial flow.
The Nation reports that Magu spoke at the 12th delegate conference of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), saying the more the EFCC dug deeper, the more the alleged looters devised new strategies.
He, however, said the anti-graft agency’s collaborations with its foreign partners including a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), were yielding positive results as the commission has been able to trace several assets illegally kept in that nation.
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Represented by a director, Aminu Gusau, Magu said: “In our various investigations, we have unearthed the collusion of bank officials and those of non-designated financial institutions, with corrupt politicians in the country, which have brought about an increase in the instances of illicit financial flows into and out of Nigeria.
“We have realised that the more we spread our tentacles far and wide, even beyond the shores of Nigeria, to catch and bring to book those who have corruptly enriched themselves from the commonwealth, the more we are discovering, the more the corrupt-minded folks evolve new techniques.
“The NLC has been a longstanding partner of the EFCC, particularly under the leadership of Comrade Ayuba Wabba. The NLC has partnered with the EFCC at various events, anti-corruption walk, among other interactive forum, strategically designed by the EFCC, to strengthen our partnership with critical stakeholders, like the NLC, in the fight against corruption.
“These collaborations with Labour and other civil society groups are hinged on the realisation that the EFCC cannot single-handedly confront the monster that corruption has become in our society.
“It is a fact of life, that a single finger cannot lift the load off the ground; such effort requires the use of all the fingers of the two hands, to achieve such an action.
“Invariably, one major purpose why I am here is to further goad the NLC to unite with the EFCC in the fight against corruption. The task of fighting corruption is a collective responsibility that has been given to each and every one of us. I have said it severally, and I want to state again that we at the EFCC do not claim or pose to have the monopoly of knowledge or the knowhow in this national assignment of fighting corruption.
“However, with your support and the goodwill of all Nigerians, our painstaking and broad-based approach will definitely yield results. Only recently, I was in Ghana as part of this concerted effort of beaming our high-tension searchlight beyond the borders of Nigeria. What we discovered is no doubt staggering and mind-boggling.
“Corrupt politicians have widened the circles of their corrupt activities by investing them in other African countries, so that in the long run, they sell them and deploy ways of repatriating them to Nigeria, even in the buildup to the election.
“But, by and by, we are also stepping up our game to combat and nip in the bud, new tactics being deployed to fraudulently divert and misappropriate funds meant for the welfare and good of all Nigerians. We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Economic and Organised Crime Office in Ghana, the Ghana financial intelligence centre and the Ghana police service to ensure that we keep track of such illicit inflow and outflow of suspicious funds.
“Our MoU with the UAE is also very much in effect as we have been able to trace several assets illegally kept there. This is in addition to several other strategies that we have deployed in carrying out our mandate of ridding Nigeria of corruption. We remain unrelenting, undaunted and unbowed.
“We have also engaged with operators of financial institutions, as well as non-financial institutions.
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“Only last week in Lagos, l was at the general meeting of the association of chief conduct and compliance officers of banks in Nigeria,” he said.
Continuing, Magu said: “In our various investigations, we have unearthed the collusion of bank officials and those of non-designated financial institutions, with corrupt politicians in the country, which have brought about an increase in the instances of illicit financial flows into and out of Nigeria.
“It, therefore, became pertinent to call them to order and charge them to see themselves as partners in the fight for the common good of all Nigerians.”
Legit.ng earlier reported that the Civil Society Groups for Accountability and Probity threatened to embark on a nationwide protest following the non-prosecution of Senator Godswill Akpabio, accused of corruption.
Jonathan Ogwuche, national secretary of the group, who addressed a press conference on Tuesday, February 5, in Abuja, said that the EFCC had not acted on petitions sent to it on the former Akwa Ibom governor.
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