The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has said that with the renewed fight against graft in the country, corrupt Nigerians will have no hiding place.
The EFCC Zonal Head, South-South, Mr. Ishaq Salihu, made this remark during a stakeholders’ meeting with pipeline surveillance contractors organised by the 2 Brigade of the Nigerian Army in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
Salihu explained that measures have been put in place to ensure that Nigerians who stole from the nation’s coffers and take their loot outside the shores of the country were forced back home and prosecuted.
The anti-graft chief pointed that the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari had shown the political will to fight corruption, even as recommended that stiffer punishment should be meted out to those involved in corrupt practices.
He specifically said that the Federal Government had entered a treaty with the government of the United Arab Emirate to ensure that Nigerians who stole the nation’s money to purchase any item in Dubai would be back home and prosecuted.
“There is now a political will to fight corruption. The President Muhammadu Buhari administration has shown this. We went to Dubai and signed a treaty that all those who took the nation’s money and bought items would be brought back home and prosecuted.
“Those involved in corruption should be made to face stiffer punishment. Only very few in the country are getting what should be used for the development of this country.
“Now, there is a deliberate shift and anybody that does not believe that the narrative has changed is living in a dreamland. We can stem the tide of corruption by giving timely information to EFCC and other security agencies.
“When you see a person who has no source of livelihood, you say the person has made it. But at the end, you realise that the person has kidnapped somebody’s daughter,” Salihu said.
He expressed dissatisfaction that some Nigerians were involved in arms deal scandal, oil scam and pension scam, adding that the EFCC and other security agents were security agents were trying their best to tackle corruption and other social vices.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Commander, 2 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt, Brigadier General Stephenson Olabanji, described the gathering as one that would afford stakeholders the opportunity to deliberate on how best to solve the problem of oil theft and illegal bunkering.
Olabanji said, “The Federal Government has been battling several challenges among which was the militancy and agitation for resource control, especially in the Niger Delta region.
“The region has no doubt being the nerve centre of the Nigerian economy because oil produced in the region has been a major source of funding for the economy. Operation Pulo Shield therefore launched with the mandate to curb the growing menace of oil theft, oil bunkering and illegal refining of petroleum products.
“In achieving this mandate, the Brigade has continued to conduct its operations against illegal oil bunkering, oil theft and operation of illegal refineries, which has continued to affect the Nigerian economy.”
He, however, enjoined participants at the stakeholders’ meeting to be forthright in the deliberations and evolve a concrete plan of action that would lead to the end of the activities of criminal elements sabotaging the collective interest of the people.
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