- Says won’t be business as usual, rules out indiscriminate freezing of accounts
From Fred Itua, Abuja
The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ola Olukoyede, on Monday, unveiled his three-point agenda, barely one month after assuming office as the 5th substantive boss of the anti-graft agency.
The legal luminary who spoke when he hosted representatives of Civil Society Organisations at Jabi, Abuja.
He said as chairman, he will repriorotise goals of the anti-graft agency and deliver the dividends of democracy to Nigerians. Olukoyodede said indiscriminate freezing of accounts and unnecessary arrests, as well as flouting of court orders will no longer be tolerated.
The anti-corruption boss said he is not bothered about his fate, maintaining that he has nothing to fear and will not leave office disgracefully.
He said: “To some people, it doesn’t matter how much you’ve put in. In Nigeria, the more you look, the less we see. We can change the trajectory. T
“To some people, it doesn’t matter how much you’ve put in. In Nigeria, the more you look, the less we see. We can change the trajectory.
“I was asked if I wasn’t worried how I’ll end since my predecessors don’t always end well? Someone must do thus job. If you do well, you’ll end well. This is what Nigeria has become. But I said some former chairmen have done well.
“From what we’ve discovered and with the kind of mindset we have, in another 20 years, there may not be Nigeria. The civil societies have done well.”
Speaking on the contribution of civil society organisations, Olukoyede, he said out of the 100 percent high-profile cases, about 80 percent is submitted by civil society organisations.
“About 80 percent of the petitions we’ve are from the civil society groups. One day, we’ll see the light at the end of the tunnel. During my hearing, I told the Senate the three areas ill focus on. It is not enough to have plans. Do we’ve the will to execute them?,” he said.
Listing his key priorities, the EFCC chairman said: “My number one priority is the need to redirect our focus to meet key targets. Have we done well in the area of using the instrumentality of anti-corruption to change the economy? If all my work doesn’t stimulate the economy of the country, what’s the essence of being here?
“Refocusing our mandate will stimulate economic growth.
The second priority is to use anti-graft as a tool to create jobs for the people. As at 2018, over N1 trillion were in accounts we froze because of investigations. We later discovered that those companies whose accounts were frozen couldn’t pay salaries of staff and people lost their jobs. The companies went bankrupt. That doesn’t mean that we’ll not move against those who deliberately set up businesses to defraud Nigeria.
“We’ve also said we’ll change the way we stigmatise properties under EFCC investigations. People don’t want to rent those properties.
“The third point is to review high profile cases and change the way we do business. We’ve not learned from some previous cases we handled. We’re reviewing our past cases to avoid pitfalls going forward.
“We also need to be professional in our dealings. The disposition of our personnel will be considered. We must be professional in our dealings. That’s why we’ve reviewed our guidelines for arrests to align with the constitution. Every step we take will be scrutinised by the public.
“EFCC is a creation of the law. As a lawyer, I must follow the rule of law. If the law says grant someone bail, we’ll do that. We’ll use the law to fight the law. We can’t hound and arrest people because we’re law enforcement agents. I’ll do the right thing as chairman of the EFCC.”