The EFCC And Its Shadow Chasing
By Victor Oluwayemi, PhD
The Commission, since its inception, has investigated and got several high-profiled politicians, fraudsters, treasury looters, amongst others, convicted in the law court.
While its achievements have been noble, at the same time, the Commission has been enmeshed in all sorts of scandals, especially of its chairmen, who are almost always disgraced and at times prosecuted after being kicked out of office.
Obviously, the EFCC is not insolated from political interference of the owners of Nigeria and any incumbent presidency to the extent that it has become the witch-hunting dogs of the presidency and its handlers.
Earlier this week, the chairman of the Commission, Mr Ola Olukoyede, loudly decried the humongous looting spree of the Nigerian treasury and wondered how the country has continued to survive despite the endemic financial and economic corruption commonplace in the land.
In his words, as contained in a statement released by the Commission’s Head of Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale, Olukoyede reveals, ‘When I look at some case files and see the humongous amount of money stolen, I wonder how we are still surviving. If you see some case files, you will weep.’ It is rather terribly funny that instead of actions to bring to book the looters and ruiners of the Nigerian state, it is songs of lamentation that the chair of the Commission is singing in the marketplace.
Does Ola Olukoyede need to be reminded that he was not saddled with the responsibility of being the chief executive officer of the EFCC simply to lament and weep for the nation? Nigerians, even their babes and sucklings, know, if not in concrete terms or for lack of concrete evidence, that all is not economically and financially well with their country.
Rather than joining the wailing wailers, as Femi Adesina, Buhari’s former media spokesperson called powerless and ordinary people during the inglorious reign of his principal, Muhammadu Buhari, the EFCC chair should get to work, do his duties or get out of the kitchen, if it is too hot for him to contain. Enough of empty lamentations. He has the knife and the yam; he should act as his mandate empowers him.
Over time, many people have called to question the modus operandi of the Commission in their sting operations towards arresting suspected criminals in different places in the country. It is as if breaking and entering and assaults have become normalized while carrying out arrest by the officers of the Commission.
There have been reported cases, with pictorial and video evidence, of the EFCC officers breaking, damaging, assaulting and injuring both men and women all in the name of making some arrest.
Hostels of tertiary institutions have been broken into in the dead of the night and people’s homes and hotels are not spared by these overzealous officers. There seems to be little or zero difference between the way and manner that armed robbers carry out their inhuman business and that of the EFCC.
Despite repeated statements by the Commission for damage control, its officers have continued to toll the line of ignominy. Instead of always being reactionary to the ills of its officers, calling for the arrest after dehumanizing Nigerians, the EFCC should orientate its field agents on the need to be humane in effecting an arrest and should always remember that all suspects are deemed innocent until proven guilty by the law court.
The EFCC needs to embark of self-cleansing first and purge itself of all sorts of inadequacies and impurities before it can effect any tangible change in the polity.
The Commission should stop chasing its own shadow and get to work as expected of a viable and effective law enforcement agency: investigate thoroughly cases of economic looters, saboteurs and ruiners, in both government and private organisations; provide irrefutable pieces of evidence against suspects; raise competent prosecution team for the cases; avoid empty media trials; retrieve stolen monies and get perpetuators of economic and financial crimes convicted to serve as deterrent to others. Else the ongoing circus in the land has no end in sight.
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