EFCC Chairman Ola Olukoyede has raised fresh concerns over corruption in Nigeria, saying public officers take national resources “every minute”.
Olukoyede spoke on Thursday in Abuja at an event marking the 80th birthday of Kanu Agabi, former attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice.
The EFCC chairman said the commission receives more than 20,000 petitions relating to public corruption every year, describing many of the cases as disturbing.
“I receive over 20,000 petitions in a year in respect to public corruption, all terrible. What is going on? Like every minute, public officers take money, and if you go through some of our case files you will weep,” Olukoyede said.
He said Nigerians are victims of fraudulent activities involving the misuse of national resources and called for collective action against corruption.
“The way people take national resources, as Nigerians we’re victims of these fraudulent activities. And we must come together for once in our lifetime and say no to the activities of some of our leaders.”
Olukoyede speaks on wealth accumulation
Olukoyede said some public servants enter office with less than N100,000 in their bank accounts but leave after three or four years with millions of dollars and naira traced to them.
He also alleged that some officials build dozens or even hundreds of houses while in office, arguing that such practices undermine national development.
“Somebody will spend three to four years as a public servant, but before he got to office he had less than N100 thousand in his account. By the time he’s leaving, we were able to trace several millions of dollars and naira to him,” he said.
“Some build 50 something houses, sometimes 200 houses. There’s no way a nation will develop with those kind of people in power, no way.”
The EFCC chairman said public servants must be able to account for their activities while in office, stressing accountability and transparency as key principles of public service.
ICPC chairman calls for integrity education
Also speaking at the event, Musa Adamu Aliyu, chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), said corruption thrives partly because of societal tolerance and weak systems.
“The major challenge of corruption in this country is that we tolerate the culture of corruption, that is why it is thriving. Secondly, we have systemic errors, our systems are weak,” Aliyu said.
The ICPC chairman called for integrity education in primary and secondary schools and urged Nigerians to engage members of Generation Z and Generation Alpha on the importance of integrity.
“We need to tell them that we want them to imbibe the culture of integrity,” he said.
The event was attended by members of the bench and bar, public office holders, civil society organisations, academics and other stakeholders.
