The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said it has recorded 3,615 convictions this year as of December 5, 2022.
EFCC’s Executive Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, disclosed this while speaking at the Inter-Agency Task Team programme to mark 20 years of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) in Abuja.
According to him, the EFCC’s performance was made possible by institutional reforms, improved training of personnel and the support received from the Nigerian government.
Increasing conviction cases: Bawa revealed that in the past few months, there have been increased cases of conviction. He said:
- “In the last eighteen months, we developed a Standard Operational Procedure for all the sixteen departments and specialized wings to enable staff to reduce the use of discretion which has helped us to get the best out of our workforce. I will like to mention here that the last report that I got in terms of the number of convictions now is very scary. As of the 5th of December, 2022, it was 3,615 convictions.”
He noted that the EFCC is working more on prevention and will use public engagements to actualise its mandate, especially with regard to the reform of the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering, SCUML, which is now domiciled in the EFCC. According to him, SCUML has improved control and oversight of designated non-financial businesses and professions.
Fighting corruption: Speaking during the aforementioned programme, the Country Representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Dr Oliver Stolpe, pointed out that Nigeria has one of the most robust institutional and legal to fight corruption worldwide.
He said that the country is gradually being able to translate its formidable anti-corruption investments to a reduction in the levels of corruption, as shown by recent studies. He said:
- “The reports we are launching today should give us a hint on what anti-corruption agencies can do more in their respective positions while the civil society representatives will also share their perspective on what they can expect from these leaders and how to work together to achieve greater results.
- “So our aim here today is to identify what we can do differently to reap greater benefits from Nigeria`s anti-corruption investments.”
