Fred Itua and Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja 

Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu, has said lack of collaboration from senior lawyers and foreign governments was hampering efforts to recover stolen funds abroad and tackle corruption.

Magu lamented that the agency was not getting the right collaboration required to aid judicial processes in the fight against corruption.

Magu said no agency can singlehandedly tackle corruption without the active collaboration of others.

He stated this at  a Town Hall meeting on “Fight Against Corruption” organised by the Ministry of Information and Culture in Abuja, yesterday.

“Lack of progress in some high profile corruption cases due to the antics of defence lawyers, especially some Senior Advocates of Nigeria is a challenge. There is also the lack of cooperation by some institutions in both public and private sectors that should be working side-by -side with the Commission. There is lack of cooperation by some foreign countries in the recovery of stolen assets stashed abroad,” Magu said.

Magu said corruption was the biggest challenge bedeviling the country as every facet of public life is affected by it.

“In the last four years, the EFCC, backed by  President Muhammadu Buhari, has through a combination of enforcement and preventive measures, proven that this monster can be tamed. All that is needed is a combination of guts, integrity and determinate.  “The EFCC has executed a corruption prevention strategy that targets the most vulnerable segment of the population in the delivery of anti-corruption messages,” he said.

Magu said the Commission secured 890 convictions from cases prosecuted between January and October 2019, and recorded 103 convictions in 2015, 189 in 2016, 190 in 2017 and 202 in 2018.

In spite of Magu’s misgivings, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), said government recovered over N200 billion in final forfeiture in its anti-corruption fight.

He was represented by Mr. Abiodun Ayodeji, Special Adviser to the President on Financial Crimes.

“The money we have earned for the Federal Government in the process of the anti-corruption war is in the excess of N200 billion. Notable recoveries are the $325 million  Abacha loot and $75 million  connected from the Malabu oil transaction,’’ he said. Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed, said President Muhammadu Buhari has driven corruption under the table. He claimed that Nigerians no longer flaunt proceeds of corruption the way they did in the past.

Mohammed said although it was not the first time Nigeria is fighting  corruption, it was the first time that the fight is being backed by a strong political will from the President.

Meanwhile, embattled former Chairman of the Special Investigation Panel for Recovery of Public Property Property (SPIP), Okoi Obono-Obla, has been warned to stop weaving public sentiments over his travails.

Chairman of Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye stated this in a reaction to a letter by Obono-Obla accusing Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo of persecuting him because of his loyalty to President Muhammadu Buhari.

Reacting to Obono-Obla’s letter addressed to President Buhari, Prof. Owasanoye said “the strongest defence for an accused person is to come out and say I did not do it. Any other defence is a shenanigan.”

The ICPC boss said such allegation was common among politicians who preferred to weave religious, ethnicity and partisanship sentiment to over up for their misdeeds, rather than face the court.

He said there were cases where some accused persons paraded fake medical reports and gave excuses of traveling abroad just to circumvent their trial.

Owasanoye therefore commended  the move by anti-corruption agencies to sanction medical doctors that issue fake medical reports.

He said reports of oversea travels by suspects should also be investigated to ascertain their veracity.