EFCC, ICPC Synergise To Tackle Corruption

The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, met on Tuesday.

The meeting, initiated by the Chairman of ICPC, Musa Adamu Aliyu, was to strengthen the nation’s fight against corruption.

The meeting, held at the headquarters of the EFCC on Tuesday, had in attendance the chairmen and management staff of the two anti-graft agencies and was aimed to deepen mutual cooperation and synergize efforts for greater impact in Nigeria’s anti-corruption drive, and discuss other areas of collaborations.

In his remarks, the Chairman of ICPC, Dr. Musa Adamu Aliyu, SAN stated that the visit to the EFCC was a show of commitment to the existing relationship between the two agencies.

He expressed the readiness of ICPC, under his leadership to provide the needed support and cooperation in the interest of eradicating corruption in Nigeria.

“It is important for us to work together, and we cannot do this without a good relationship. That’s why I think I need to extend this hand of friendship to the EFCC so that we can effectively partner in the fight against corruption in Nigeria,” he said.

“I am aware that there’s an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) between the EFCC and ICPC and I’m willing and ready to partner whenever there’s any issue of interest in the fight against corruption.

“I’ll be reaching out to my brother and chairman of EFCC on issues I think we can partner because there’s no need for us to be duplicating responsibilities, wasting resources and time. I hope with this first meeting, we are going to be meeting regularly to review what we are doing together.”

On his part, the Chairman of the EFCC, Mr Ola Olukoyede concurred on the position of collaboration, saying the meeting had also presented an opportunity for the review of the existing MoU between the two agencies.

“We have areas of similar mandates and with the population of about 250 million people, there’s so much in our hands and I can tell you that the enormity of the work demands that we work together.”

The EFCC boss also said that the political will of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to fight corruption, as demonstrated in recent events, was enough boost for anti-corruption agencies to give their best.

“We believe that with the kind of President that we have, who is willing and ready to do the right thing as demonstrated in the last 48 hours, it is clear that the President is providing the political will and the leadership for the anti-corruption agencies to work and I believe that with this, there’s no hiding place for us and we must ensure that we give our best.

“We are going to give the President the right support and we believe that the courage would be there to take the right decisions. Nobody is too big to be investigated in this country. Once you are not playing to the rules, we’ll investigate you.”