Help in war against corruption, scam – EFCC to pastors, Imams, traditional rulers, others

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, on Friday urged religious leaders, traditional rulers, and Nigerians to support the agency in its conscious war against corruption.

Olukoyede urged Nigerians to be conscious of public interests in their communities.

The anti-graft agency Czar spoke during the inauguration of the EFCC’s zonal Directorate in Awka, Anambra State.

According to Olukoyede: “I want to use this opportunity to call for what I described as a conscious watch against financial crimes. By conscious watch, I mean that communities must become conscious of the public interest. If the budget meant for your communities is abandoned despite funds being released, ask questions.”

The EFCC Chairman charged Nigerians to speak out against fraudulent investments aimed at scamming them.

He said: “If public resources are being diverted, don’t look away. If you become aware of a fraudulent investment targeting members of your community, don’t look away.

“Somebody will come and promise you a 100 percent interest rate in one month, and you pack all your life savings, and you give it to them, no. We just convicted 21 criminals a few days ago over an investment scam; they were not licensed. There was one that we had to recover over a billion from.

“These are things happening within our environment, so if someone comes and says that we want to offer you 30 percent in one week over your investment, think deep: can it be real? You are about to be scammed.

“I want to use this opportunity to call for what I call conscious war. If you become aware of a public property being converted to private use, don’t accept it as normal; if you have credible information about financial crime, bring that information forward.

“The fight against corruption begins when people decide that what belongs to everybody can no longer be treated as belonging to nobody; that’s the conscious watch that we need.

“Traditional rulers, religious leaders, town unions, market associations, professional bodies, CSOs, and the media can help us.”