The Kano Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission has rejected a series of calls for the scrapping of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), describing the calls as “unpatriotic and short-sighted.”
Speaking on International Ombuds Day 2024, organized by the Kano Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission with the theme “Here to Hear You,” the Chairman of the Commission, Barrister Muhyi Magaji Rimin Gado, said the calls are nothing but misdirected attacks on a critical agency helping the nation.
“We don’t support the idea of calls for scrapping the EFCC. The more anti-graft agencies we have, the better the fight against corruption for the country. Some private issues, yes, can be handled by sub-state anti-graft offices like ours,” Muhyi noted.
He said Nigeria needs to move forward in terms of service delivery, and what the nation urgently needs is not calls for the scrapping of any anti-graft office.
He reminded, “When I came to the office in 2015, I found only 30 cases. But today we have 1,339 cases, with about 60 percent being duly prosecuted and 30 percent still pending, and we are doing this job without collecting a single kobo using the Ombudsman system.”
Barrister Muhyi explained that just last week, he recovered N30 million through mediation, and they even paid for some expenses. This clearly shows that the country needs sub-state anti-graft agencies like his to support the EFCC and others.
“MacArthur Foundation granted us funds to revive the Management Conference of the Commission. Some issues are ombuds-related but could only be handled by the EFCC or the police,” he said.
Speaking during the program, Musa Auyo, Commissioner 1 of the Jigawa State Anti-Corruption Commission, said they are proud to be the pioneer executive of the Commission, commending the Kano Commission for helping set the Jigawa Commission running on February 15, 2022.
“We have tried to establish a relationship, and over time, we have rendered many courts and police stations inactive because people believe more in us, while the procedures in courts and with the police are so tedious, one could get tired before getting justice.”
He added that their major challenges are land issues and other criminal activities, protecting government grazing lands, and recovering government housing projects that were given out but not paid for. They have already recovered millions of naira for the government.