- PACAC chair recounts EFCC’s, ICPC’s achievements, slams TI
Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), has faulted those claiming that corruption has worsened under President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said such critics ignored the facts and toed the path of “hatred”.
The eminent professor of law described the records of the nation’s anti-graft agencies in the past seven years as “phenomenal”.
He said he found it “irritating” that some people denied the reality that the Buhari administration has achieved giant strides in the fight against graft.
Sagay said: “The popular, cheap and dishonest refrain is not just that corruption has not been decimated, but that it is even worse now than before 2015.
“This is purely a self-indulgent lie and expression of hatred rather than true belief.
“In this sad state of denial, these people partner Transparency International (TI), a foreign and colonial outfit established to destroy the self-esteem of developing, particularly African countries.”
The eminent law teacher gave an update on the anti-graft war at a briefing in Abuja after a one-day event on combatting money laundering and terrorism financing.
The event was organised by PACAC to raise awareness about aspects of the Money Laundering Act and the Terrorism Act.
Highlighting the current administration’s anti-graft records, including setting up PACAC as a think-tank, Sagay said fighting corruption has remained a priority for the present administration.
Aside from capacity building, he said PACAC had supported anti-corruption agencies through strategy workshops on non-conviction-based asset recovery, resulting in recoveries of about N1 trillion stolen funds.
He said the impact of PACAC’s activities can be seen in the renewed energy of the anti-graft agencies with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) securing over 3,000 convictions, including high profile politicians, in the last seven years.
He said the EFCC recovered N152 billion and $386 million in total assets last year.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the PACAC boss said, recovered N118.02 billion in assets, concluded 3,852 investigations and filed 287 cases in court, with over 80 convictions secured between 2019 and 2022.
He said ICPC tracked at least 2,782 abandoned projects under various schemes and got about 300 contractors to complete them within the period under review.
This is aside from the recovery of diverted constituency projects, such as hospital dialysis machine in Akwa Ibom; diverted ambulances in Edo and Ogun states; recovery of electric transformers valued at over N400 million in Enugu, and recovery of agriculture tractors diverted by project sponsors to private farm in Bauchi, amongst others, he said.
He again faulted Transparency International (TI) reports on Nigeria, saying they are merely based on opinions rather than facts on the ground.
He said: “In 2017, I attended one of the annual conferences of Transparency International in Berlin (Germany).
“There, I openly challenged their consistently dishonest positioning of Nigeria at the bottom in their annual reports.
“I asked them whether they had visited the EFCC and the ICPC for a comparative exercise between records of pre- and post-2015 convictions and asset recoveries in Nigeria.
“They admitted that they had not done so, but that they were merely reporting public perception and not facts.
“This means that they simply called jaundiced personnel of opposition parties or individuals with sick hatred of the President and his party on the phone, and presented this to the world as the state of Nigeria in the fight against corruption.”
Sagay, at the event, dissected the money laundering and terrorism prevention laws.
On the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022, he said: “It is clear that the new Act’s sweeping provisions are meant to guarantee that no unlawful financial transaction can go outside the ambit of the EFCC.
“This is most welcome in our present situation in which financial crimes proliferate so much that it is almost choking this country’s economy.”
On the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022, Sagay said: “There are altogether about 20 different situations constituting terrorism in the Act.
“Given the scourge of universal violence, nationwide, the Act can be described as containing provisions and punishments that are not only contemporary but also fit the gravity of the crime of terrorism…
“It is encouraging that Nigeria has now engaged in more vigour in the war against our terrorists.”
The Nation
