EFCC secures 1,900 convictions, recovers N794bn in 4 years — Magu

Mr Ibrahim Magu, the Acting Chairman, Economic and Financial Commission (EFCC), says the commission has so far secured 1,900 convictions and recovered N794 billion in four years.

Magu disclosed this in Abuja on Monday at the 2019 International Anti-Corruption Day with the theme: “Zero Tolerance for Corruption”.

“Our scorecard in this regard speaks volumes; for the four years that I have been in-charge of the commission, we have secured about 1,900 convictions, including top government officials.

“Former governors; captains of industry, oil subsidy merchants and scores of players in the private sector. Former military chiefs and civil servants have also been convicted as well as many illegal oil bunkerers in the Niger Delta.

“On recoveries, there is no law enforcement agency in Africa that has equalled the phenomenal recoveries that the EFCC has made.

“In the four years under my watch, we have recovered more than N794 billion and have ensured hundreds of properties forfeited to the government,” he said.

He added that in the Port Harcourt Zone of the EFCC, a total of 244 trucks were forfeited to the government owing to illegal oil bunkering activities in the region.

“As a commission, we are not unrelenting in our determination to completely eradicate corruption from Nigeria through our fight against corruption.

“Those who doubt our resolve must sooner come to terms with the fact that the EFCC is a marathoner and when it comes to the fight against corruption, we never give up.

“This was recently demonstrated last week when, after 12 years of legal hide and seek that took us to the Supreme Court and back, the long convoluted trial of former Abia State governor, Orji Uzor Kalu (ended).

“This trial was brought to closure with his conviction and sentence to 12 years imprisonment without an option of fine for stealing over seven billion naira from the treasury of Abia State Government.

“This brings to three, the number of former state governors that were convicted of corruption within one year on my watch,” he said.

Magu said the commission would go into partnership with various sectors in the fight against corruption as everybody needed to be involved in the fight to achieve a sustainable result.

“We have chosen to partner with various sectors because we want to go into not only fighting corruption alone but select very notorious sectors and partner with them.

“Let us go into sectoral approach in the fight against corruption. We will go with the health sector first because there is a lot of problem in the hospitals with the doctors. This approach might change the narrative.”