The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, says Nigeria cannot survive without the anti-graft agency citing the agency’s commitment in tackling the endemic corruption in the country.
The spokesman for the agency, Wilson Uwajuren made the remark on Monday while speaking on Channels Television programme, the Morning Show.
The commission’s image maker’s spoke amidst its battered image among Nigerians in the manner it has handled its anti-corruption operations.
Not a few Nigerians have accused the Ola Olukoyede-led commission of scratching the surface of the country’s corruption problems, the agency has also received knocks for media trial of those alleged to have been involved in financial crimes.
Rather than go for the big corruption cases which pose a great danger to the country, critics of the commission say it has busied itself chasing internet fraudsters popular as Yahoo Boys.
For instance, the EFCC has come under strong criticisms over the sloppy manner it so far handled the alleged corruption case involving, Yahayah Bello, a former governor of Kogi state.
The former governor was alleged to have mismanaged over N80 billion belonging to the state, which he has yet to account for.
Efforts by the EFCC to bring him to justice has been largely unsuccessful as Nigerians continue to ask why his case is different from other corruption exposed persons who have been successfully prosecuted by the agency and made to answer for their crimes against the country.
Even more, the commission recently came under severe condemnations after it failed to arrest the former governor when he visited the EFFC office on September 18.
The occasion, analysts insist, presented the commission the rare opportunity to take Bello to custody having been a fugitive of the law for several months even though there’s a pending court summons against him to clear his name of the allegations of the preferred against him by the EFCC.
Reacting to the allegation, the commission said the former governor had a game plan to ridicule the EFCC, adding that he did not genuinely surrender himself.
Bello’s “presence at the EFCC on the 18th of September was more of a stunt not really that he wanted to abide by the rule of law,” EFCC said.
The former governor has since gone into hiding as Nigerians continue to wonder when he would be finally brought to justice.
Meanwhile, Justice Maryanne Anenih of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT in Maitama, Abuja on October 3, 2024 issued a public summon against Bello following his absence in a fresh arraignment on 16-count charges preferred against him by the EFCC.
He has yet to show up before the judge.
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