Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, on December 10, 2012, said that no less that $9 million was intercepted by EFCC operatives at the nation's airports between September 2012 till date. The amount, he said, is outside the capital flight of about N14 billion which was laundered across the nation's airports between January and August 2012.

The chairman, who was speaking at the 2012 International Anti-Corruption Day celebrations with the theme, ACT....Help Detect Corruption Risks Today, organised by the Inter – Agency Task Team, IATT, comprising of Anti –Corruption Agencies, said the amount represented physical cash and not legitimate cash transfer through the financial institutions, taken out through the nation's airport.

Lamorde who gave example of an individual, who was arrested for laundering money in cash to the tune of $7 million in brief case and flying out of the country through the airport, said "between January to August this year, over N14 billion was taken out of Nigeria through cash movement, physical cash not transfer, people taking money in brief case and taken out of Nigeria. If you calculate this amount, it's almost half of the budget of the country. Its share greed, callousness and meanness of the people involved,"

According to Lamorde, the $9 million intercepted at the nation's airports between January and August followed an operation of a Special Task Team which is a joint patrol of the airport by the EFCC operatives and Nigerian Customs officers which commenced in September 2012.

He said "corruption is one of the reasons Nigeria has not been able to make progress, socially, politically and economically and we have all agreed that corruption cannot be sustained in Nigeria, all of us must come together to fight corruption", he added.
The EFCC chairman, who said the funding of the anti-corruption agencies and their operating legislations have to be reviewed, explained that between January and December 2012, the Commission had filed about 353 cases at various courts across the country and had recorded about 53 convictions so far.

"Criminal procedure rather than judiciary should be blamed for the problem of slow pace of trial of corruption cases. Somebody cannot steal from you and expect that the law should protect him against you the victim of his crime. Something has to be done. I pray that the new leadership of the judiciary will be able to do something", he said.

He also reiterated the need for a special court to take on corruption cases in Nigeria. "Judges are either transferred or the witnesses dead. It is not fair on the anti-corruption agencies to say they are delaying cases. Let cases not last forever. If you think there is no case, please discharge the person but where the person has a case to answer, the case should be concluded in good time", he said.

IATT Chairman, Mr. Ledum Mitee said some very possible reasons why the problem of corruption had remained stagnant were: weak anti-corruption institutions in terms of capacity, funding and coordination; failure of leadership at all levels to genuinely talk the talk and walk the walk and the need for a more concerted effort in ensuring synergy in the operations of Anti-Corruption Agencies.

He said that performance in fighting corruption had been very poor. "However, we cannot continue on this path. We must steer the ship aright. With the establishment of the Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT), synergy is being built amongst the anti-corruption agencies; the era of individual turf is waning giving room for possible joint investigations and prosecutions which in turn is expected to result in effective sanctions and prevention of corruption", he said.

Mitee added that another way corruption could be collectively and systematically addressed "is by adopting a Holistic National Strategy to Combat Corruption. And I understand that the IATT has developed a draft National Strategy document. This document is most encouraging and should be given every push for adoption by the Federal Executive Council to translate into policy".

Wilson Uwujaren
Ag. Head, Media & Publicity
10th December, 2012