Banks, Staff Conceal Funds for Looters- EFCC

Ibrahim Magu, chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has accused banks and some of their officials of helping looters of national treasury conceal stolen wealth.

Magu, said it was unfortunate that some banks encourage looting by creating an “enabling environment” for it and vowed that the banks and the officials will be brought to book.

The EFCC boss who spoke in Lagos during an interactive session with the commission’s external lawyers and civil society organisations, stated that “the banking sector is creating a fertile ground for corruption”.

According to him, it was as if the banks were telling looters: “Go and steal and I’ll hide it for you”, a development he said must stop.

“We’ll zoom in on the banks. We need to stop them from creating an enabling environment for corruption to thrive,” he said.

On whether the commission would invite former First Lady Patience Jonathan  for questioning over the $15,591,700 she claims belongs to her, Magu said investigation was ongoing.

“We are on it. You see, we work for the long-term. We must complete our preliminary investigations before we come out,” he said.

Magu told the forum that EFCC sometimes spends up to nine months investigating a case before inviting suspects for questioning, adding that no one who has stolen public funds would be spared.

“We’ll not spare anybody. We can’t protect anyone from answering to the people. Determination is key. I believe we’ll go a long way and that our tomorrow will be better than our today,” he said.

The EFCC chair said the commission did not characterise all lawyers as “rogues”, saying the statement was misinterpreted.

According to him, “just as there are bad eggs within the EFCC, there are also corrupt lawyers. We can’t just come out and condemn people,” he said.

Magu said the EFCC has begun an in-house cleansing to weed out corrupt employees.

“You need to be here to know that corruption is fighting back. Corrupt people have people on their payroll. They have easy money. We’re very serious, so, we want to cleanse the inside,” he said.