Nigeria has
recorded illicit financial outflows of $217.7bn in 38 years, specifically
between 1970 and 2008, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, said in
Abuja on Wednesday.
The
commission stated that the various investigations, arrests, prosecution and
assets recoveries over the years had confirmed that the level of corruption in
Nigeria had been truly staggering.
The Acting
Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, represented by its Acting Spokesperson, Tony
Orilade, expressed these views at a one-day conference organised by Online
Publishers Association of Nigeria with the theme: “Free press and objective
reporting in the 2019 election year.”
The EFCC
boss said corruption in Nigeria was being perpetrated by individuals and groups
both in the private and public sectors.
He
identified former state governors, ministers, high ranking military officers,
chief executives of parastatals and top bureaucrats in state and federal
agencies as culprits involved in the public sector theft.
Magu said,
“The alarming rate of corruption committed by these unpatriotic elements can be
partly seen in the number of convictions secured by the EFCC from Nigerian
courts since I assumed duty as the head of the commission in 2015.
“The figure
stands at 103 in 2015, 195 in 2016, 189 in 2017 and 312 for the period of
January to December 2018. The total figure for the period of 2015 to 2018 is a
mind-blowing 799 convictions. In the process of such convictions, the EFCC
recovered N794.5bn, $261m, £1.1m, €8.1m and CFA86, 500.
“One of the
most graphic ways through which the absence of democratic accountability
manifests itself in Nigeria today is through the prevalence of rampant
corruption at all levels of governance. For example, Transparency International
reported that Nigeria was the most corrupt country in the world for years:
1996, 1997, 2000 and second in the line for remaining years up to 2003.
“In February 2015, a high-level panel on
illicit financial flows from Africa constituted by the African Union, under the
chairmanship of a former President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, revealed that
Nigeria ranked first among ten African countries by cumulative illicit
financial flows between 1970 and 2008. The total outflow from Nigeria for the
period was $217.7bn constituting about 30.5 per cent of Africa’s total share.”
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