Acting Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Mustapha Magu, yesterday disclosed that former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala, was being investigated by the Commission. Magu, who appeared before the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Financial Crimes, also said the ongoing anti-graft war would soon move to the petroleum and other sectors of the economy. In this wise, the EFCC boss said former Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, is also being investigated.
Also being investigated is Kola Aluko. Aluko has been described as a close associate of Allison-Madueke, and there were allegation that he helped in siphoning money out of the country. Magu, who was in the House to defend last year’s budget performance and the 2016 budget proposals of the anti-graft agency was responding to a question asked by a member of the committee, Razak Atunwa. The lawmaker, representing Kwara State on the ticket of the All Progressives Congress, APC, had asked the EFCC boss if both Okonjo- Iweala and Alison-Madueke were among those being investigated. Confirming the lawmaker’s question, Maku said: “Very soon, we will go into the petroleum industry.
“We have to build capacity, we have to bring in experts to enable us tackle what we are doing properly and the investigation must be conducted properly. We have internal lawyers and external lawyers, we have to pay insurance.” There have been calls for both ministers to be investigated, especially in the area of fuel subsidy, which has allegedly been a monumental fraud. Magu, in his presentation, also drew the attention of the committee members to a recommendation by the Federal Ministry of Budget and Planning to slash the agency’s overhead cost for 2016 from N2.9 billion to N1.3 billion, which represents a shortfall of N1.6 billion or 116 per cent. He said doing so would adversely affect the prosecution of the ongoing war against corruption. He listed the areas to be affected by the budget slash to include investigative activities, manpower development and maintenance of logistics
The EFCC boss, who added that the commission was not unaware of the dwindling oil revenue and the Federal Government’s commitment to reduce recurrent expenditure, however called on the National Assembly to consider the approval of an additional N500 million for the agency in order to aid its operational activities. “More sectors of the economy may come under investigative activities during the year,” he said. He also highlighted the challenges facing EFCC to include space constraints as a result of the inability to complete the permanent headquarters, high rent, dearth of adequate manpower and operational vehicles. He said the commission achieved about 91 per cent of its 2015 approved budget with only about 9 per cent shortfall. Magu also craved the support of the National Assembly in the planned recruitment of additional 750 personnel of different cadres for the agency in 2016 in order to create core staff as most staff were on secondment presently. Earlier, chairman of the committee, Kayode Oladele, assured of the legislature’s readiness to assist EFCC to achieve its mandate.
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