Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mrs Farida Waziri has said that the weekend gun attack on some operatives will not in any way deter the anti-graft agency from investigating and prosecuting the corrupt in the country. Five EFCC operatives had come under gun attack on Friday March 19 along Mbano/Okigwe road, Imo state while returning from the Federal High Court, Owerri, where the Commission is prosecuting Chief Hubert Chikwe, who is the husband of Nigeria’s Ambassador to Ireland, Kema Chikwe over a N40 million fraud. The gunmen killed one of the operatives, Eze Edoga, leaving others critically wounded.
Speaking with journalists on the attack on Sunday, March 21, in Abuja, Waziri said “It is with the deepest regret that, the Commission lost one of its officers in the unfortunate incident. Two other staff were critically injured in the attack and are currently receiving treatment in a hospital. In a manner typical of cowards, the officers were trailed from the court premises by the assailants who later opened fire on them along Okigwe Road. The matter has since been reported to the Nigerian Police for thorough investigation.
The plans, she said, are rooted in several ongoing investigations and or prosecution conducted by the Commission particularly those involving highly placed Politically Exposed Persons. She stated that while the practice in the past has been to frustrate prosecution of cases in the courts by employing all manner of delay tactics, the new dimension of brute force and violence to kill and maim, should be condemned by well meaning Nigerians. “It is important to alert the nation of the resolve of highly corrupt persons to scuttle the current reinvigorated fight against corruption in the country. Only in November last year, a member of the board was brutally murdered in a bizarre and grotesque manner. It is hoped that through such illicit means, the Commission will become scared and cases against perpetrators will be dropped,” Waziri said.
She however assured Nigerians and the international community that the Commission was determined to bring to book all corrupt elements in the country. “While we pray that the soul of the departed rest in perfect peace and that the injured receive a very quick recovery, we wish to assure all Nigerians and indeed the international community that the resolve and determination of the Commission to bring all corrupt elements in the country to justice can never be shaken by acts of intimidation and or blackmail. The fight against corruption is at the centre of our governance challenge as a country. We cannot therefore shirk away from such an important responsibility because of threats by the very people whose conduct has inflicted unimaginable damage on the economy and avoidable poverty on our people at large,” she said.
She therefore called on Nigerians to speak out against this dangerous development which, if not addressed, will gestate into a much wider problem and signal a situation of hopelessness and lawlessness. “A day should never come in this country when the looters of our treasury be the same people who dictate how our nation should be governed”, she said. She condemned all those who will not see anything good about the anti-corruption fight as championed by the EFCC. Her words “As cardinal as the fight against corruption is to the development of this country, all that some self-centered persons can do is to devote their time, energy and ill-gotten wealth to mobilize all forms of attack against the relevant organs of government especially the EFCC, from within and outside the country. “For those that have chosen to stay outside the country to continue to wage war against Nigeria’s anti-graft war, the EFCC or myself, they have to realize that whatever image they create for their country abroad will rub off on them because they remain Nigerians. No single individual is bigger than the nation and as such, all attempts to distract active organs of government especially the EFCC through crooked means will fail because we are committed to our work and the betterment of our country”.
