Ola Olukoyede, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), says more than 40 staff members have been dismissed for corruption and financial malpractice in the past three years.
Olukoyede spoke on Monday at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja
during a briefing on the achievements of the commission under his leadership.
He said the commission had also commenced the prosecution of
more than five of the affected staff members.
“In the past two and a half years or three years of my
service, I’ve asked them to dismiss over 40 staff on account of corruption and
financial malpractice. More than five of them are being prosecuted at the
moment,” Olukoyede said.
“Because if that is what people do in other agencies and I
arrest them, I investigate them, I prosecute them, why must I just dismiss you
if you do it within our own system and I’m not prosecuting you?”
The EFCC chairman said some of the affected staff members
are already being prosecuted, while case files involving others are being
prepared for prosecution.
“You can follow those cases in court; they are public
knowledge,” he said.
Olukoyede also disclosed that the commission had renamed its
erstwhile department of internal affairs as the department of ethics and
integrity.
He said the change was made to reflect the commission’s
commitment to “internal cleansing”.
The EFCC chairman noted that the commission had designed a
gift policy for its personnel as part of measures to strengthen accountability
within the agency.
According to Olukoyede, staff members would be required to
declare assets valued above a specified threshold, including gifts received
from relatives abroad.
He said the commission would determine the types of gifts
that personnel can accept, adding that the policy would help ensure staff can
account for their means of livelihood and standard of living.
“You must be sure that your hands are clean. You can’t be
fighting corruption when your hands are soiled with corrupt practices,”
Olukoyede added.
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