EFCC and youths in the fight against corruption

...establishes Integrity Club in schools

Emeka Ibemere

Police Secondary School, Ita-Ogbolu, Akure, Ondo State, was beehive of activities, Monday May 18, when the team of Enlightenment and Reorientation Unit, of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, stormed the school to inaugurate that school’s branch of the Commission’s Integrity Club for the students of the school.

Integrity Club was a vision of the anti-graft agency to inculcate and instil core social values of sound moral upbringing in today’s young generation, as one of the campaigns strategy of the commission to create awareness against corruption and criminality.

The Integrity Club, a social youth organization meant for students in secondary schools was formed by the EFCC few years ago in order to encourage students not to indulge in crime and corruption.

 Inaugurating the Club at the Police Secondary School, Ita-Ogbolu, Akure, the Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde charged Nigerian youths to be disciplined and shun all acts of corruption. Lamorde made the appeal during the inauguration of EFCC Integrity Club.

The Chairman who was represented by the Deputy Director, Public Affairs, Osita Nwajah said that the Integrity Club was envisioned by the Commission to instil core values of honesty, fairness, responsibility and respect for self, others and citizenship in the minds of young people.

According to him, the youth needed to imbibe this core values in order to create a better future for the nation: “Corruption can be best prevented if an individual imbibes strong moral values of integrity, honesty, accountability, transparency, fairness, equity and trust,” adding that, “for the fight against corruption to be won, there has to be a deliberate shift from traditional law enforcement to crime prevention through education and citizens engagement.” “It is for this reason that the Commission established the EFCC Secondary School Integrity Club,” he stated. 

In his remark, the State Commissioner for Education Jide Adejuyigbe who was represented by A.O Adebayo admonished the students to take advantage of the Integrity Club to remodel their life, adding that the future of any nation lies in the hands of her youths. He urged the students to be good ambassadors of their school and the nation at large.

 Also speaking, the Director of Police Education Ibrahim M. Kabiru who was represented by Austin Odion noted that corruption in schools are of different shades which include cheating during examinations, bullying of junior students, lying, and hoodwinking teachers in order to get pass to go home.

He urged the students to join hands with the EFCC in fighting corruption and other social vices in order to make the society a better place. Earlier, the Head, Enlightenment and Reorientation Unit,  Aisha Larai Musa, enumerated some of the activities of the club which included  lectures, essay writing, debates, drama, cartoons and comic creations, musical concert, quiz and sports competitions.

She said integrity is a basic tool in the fight against economic and financial crimes and admonished the students to embrace Integrity, hard work, discipline and avoid greed and idleness. The Commandant of the School, Haruna Limachi in his speech called on government at all levels to focus more on youth empowerment saying that if youths were adequately empowered they would contribute meaningfully to the development of our country.

The Commandant noted that the process of moulding the character of a child is not only found in the classrooms but also in participating in different extra-curricular activities in the school. He thanked the EFCC for her foresight in establishing integrity clubs in Secondary Schools across the Country particularly in Akure.

It would be recalled that the Commission had recently carried out a programme for youths tagged: ‘Young Aspirants Leadership Fellowship programme’ where Lamorde charged the youth to be good citizens of the country by saying, ‘to be good followers in order to be good leaders’.

 The Chairman of the EFCC charged Nigerian youths, who are aspiring to be in leadership positions to be good followers as well, observing that the problem of Nigeria is not entirely that of bad leadership but followers.

Lamorde, who spoke through Mr. Osita Nwajah, Deputy Director, Public Affairs at the event organized at Bolingo Hotel & Towers Abuja, stated that by being law abiding and shunning all forms of corruption, Nigerian youths would emerge as worthy leaders of tomorrow. “Be alive to your environment, monitor the people you relate with and do things within the ambit of the law’’, he charged.

The EFCC boss urged the youths to identify themselves as potential force in the fight against corruption and help in the re-invention of Nigeria, as a corruption-free nation. The anti graft Czar, quoted the eminent writer and novelist, Chinua Achebe by saying that the problem with Nigeria was squarely that of leadership, but added that the followership also has a key role to play in nation building as one cannot be a good leader, if he fails to be a good follower.

Giving examples of failures of leadership of the political class as exemplified by the incarceration of James Onanefe Ibori former Governor of Delta state, and the ongoing prosecutions of other past governors, ministers and public servants across the nation, Lamorde said, corruption violates human rights, distorts public expenditure pattern of the society, and reduces the effectiveness of public administration as it impoverishes the poor.

The organizers of the youth fellowship, and Executive Director, Young Stars Foundation, Kingsley Bangwell, said that the first edition of the Young Aspirants Leadership Forum was designed to identify young people of high leadership pedigree. “This workshop is to help youths understand political leadership, run for office and the dangers of corruption in political aspiration and its impact on the citizenry,” he said.

In its vision to initiate youths into the fight against corruption and criminality, the Secretary to the EFCC, Emmanuel Adegboyega Aremo also urged Nigerian youths to embrace positive values and shun all vices, especially corruption.

He was speaking earlier in the year at the Commission’s headquarters, Abuja when he was presented with a distinguished role model award by members of the Akoko Youth Congress.

Leader of the three-man AYC team, Comrade Aluko Rasheed said the honour for the EFCC scribe is in recognition of his selfless service and exemplary conduct.

 “Your good conduct and administrative style coupled with your numerous charitable works has fundamentally amazed our union. Your passion for humanity and your incomparable dedication to the physical development of our dear country and your enviable academic records has made a comrade of you. This is no doubt the reason we chose to bestow on you AYC golden award as a distinguished AYC role model of the year 2013,” Rasheed said.

He added that: “as a respected and dedicated Ondo State indigene you have gone beyond the ordinary to capture the essence of vision, hard work, accountability and integrity”.

Aremo who said he was humbled by his choice for the award, coming a few months after he assumed office as Secretary to the EFCC, thanked the group for the rare honour. He advised members of the association to be hard working and positive role model for their peers and the younger generation.

He assured the group that he would continue to contribute his quota to the development of Akoko land and the Nigerian state.

 Meanwhile, the Commission said Justice O. A. Adeniyi of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja on Friday May 16, 2014, convicted and sentenced one Ebiloma Abdullahi to 12 years imprisonment for forgery and obtaining money by false pretence.

The convict was arraigned in November 2009, on a seven-count charge of impersonation, forgery and obtaining money by false pretence. The convict who paraded himself as a student of Federal University of Technology, Minna, was said to have assumed the position of the National President of the National Association of Nigeria Student, NANS, and in such capacity paid courtesy visits to Alhaji Isa Yuguda, governor of Bauchi State; Alhaji Sani Lulu, former Chairman of the Nigerian Football Association, NFA; from whom he obtained the sum of N500,000 under the pretence that the money would be used to mobilize Nigeria students to support the Super Eagles.

Justice Adeniyi found the accused guilty on count one and seven for forgery and obtaining money by false pretence and consequently sentenced him to 2 years on count one and 10 years’ imprisonment on count seven without an option of fine. The sentences are to run concurrently. The convict was, however, discharged and acquitted on counts two to six.

Count 1 reads: “That you Ebiloma Abdullahi sometime in March 2008 at Abuja in the Abuja Judicial Division of the High Court of Federal Court Territory did make a false student identity card of Federal University of Technology, Minna, purportedly signed by Director of the University Security Services with matriculation number 1999/8683 BB with the intent to commit fraud and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 364 of Penal Code Caps 359, Laws of the Federation.”

Count seven also reads: “That you Ebiloma Abdullahi sometime in March 2008 at Abuja in the Abuja Judicial Division of the High Court of Federal Capital Territory did with the intent to defraud obtain the sum of N500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) from the President of Nigerian Football Association and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 1 (1) (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Decree as amended by the Tribunals (Certain Consequential Amendments etc) Decree No 62 of 1990 and punishable under section 1(3) of the same Decree”.

On Thursday May 15, 2014 EFCC arraigned Muhammad Ibrahim Sodangi before Justice Darius Haet Khobo of the Kaduna State High Court on a 13-count charge bordering on personating and stealing. Sodangi was alleged to have falsely pretended to be a retired officer/civil servant in the Kaduna State Civil Service and in such assumed character enlisted his name in the pension payroll of Kaduna State Civil Service where he defrauded the state of N66 million (sixty six million naira).

The Kaduna State Government had engaged Sodangi as a consultant to undertake the computerization of the Kaduna State Pension payroll and in that capacity committed the fraud.

Prosecuting counsel, Sylvanus Tahir, sought the leave of the court to prefer charge against the accused person. He was vehemently opposed by the defence counsel, Abbas Ibrahim who stated that the EFCC lacked the capacity and competence to prefer charge:

"We submit that by the principle of separation of power enunciated in the doctrine of federalism duly recognized in section 2 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Federal Government and its coordinating states have distinct powers," he said adding that, only the Attorney General of Kaduna State as its chief law officer has exclusive power to institute the case.

Tahir however urged the court to dismiss the defence counsel’s submission as ‘it is a ploy by the accused to delay his arraignment and trial’.

 He said the Commission was empowered by the EFCC Establishment Act, 2004 to fight economic and financial crimes. Justice Khobo ruled that the EFCC Act adequately empowers the agency to prosecute and asked the accused to take his plea. Sodangi pleaded not guilty to the 13 count charge when read to him. Count 6 of the charge reads, “That you, Muhammad Ibrahim Sodangi, being a Consultant engaged by the Kaduna State Government to undertake the Computerization of the Kaduna State Pension payroll, sometime between August, 2012 to December, 2012 at Kaduna in the Kaduna Judicial Division of the High Court of Kaduna State did take dishonestly the sum of N9, 937, 163.34 (Nine Million, Nine Hundred and Thirty Seven Thousand, One Hundred and Sixty Three Naira and Thirty Four Kobo only), property of Kaduna State Pension Bureau without its consent by enlisting your name into the Pension Payroll and which said sum were paid into your Keystone Bank Plc Account No: 05029000014 Kaduna Main Branch and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 287 of the Penal Code Law of Kaduna State of Nigeria. Thereafter, Tahir asked the court to fix a date for trial and remand the accused person in prison custody. However, Abbas urged the court to grant his client bail stating that he had never defaulted on the administrative bail granted him by the EFCC.

Justice Khobo granted bail to the accused in the sum of one million naira with a reliable surety, who must be resident in Kaduna. The surety is to have a clear means of identification such as international passport, national identity card or drivers licence. The surety must possess a landed property verifiable by the court. Justice Khobo adjourned the case to June 19, 2014 for trial.