By Paul Onomuakpokpo
It is a disturbing
paradox that the Ibrahim Magu’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
has left unresolved – the more breathtaking the speed with which it pursues its
campaign of ridding the country of corruption, the more chinks are inflicted on
its armour for sceptics to question its credibility. Just recently, the
Department of State Services (DSS) and the Senate attempted to nibble away at
the confidence of Magu by directly impugning his competence and integrity.
Worse, the commission has been woefully losing its cases in the courts.
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| (pix: NigerianEcho) |
The above could be considered as externally
induced bumps in the path of the commission to wage a successful war against
corruption. But there are other obstacles that the agency has seemingly spawned
deliberately to serve a purpose other than its avowed pursuit of national good.
The newest obstacle that the EFCC is now erecting in its path is its
declaration of its inability to identify the owners of loot it has recovered.
By taking this path, the agency has failed to
realise that it has set up itself for mockery. For the EFCC’s declaration is a
self-indictment as it means that it has failed to do the first things before
rushing to the media to announce its haul to its excited audience that cheers
it on. It has failed to do a thorough surveillance and investigation that could
have made it to unveil the identities of the culprits and render its case
irreproachable. It is this unbroken absence of fidelity to the first things
that have made the courts to dismiss most of the cases of the EFCC.
As the controversy rages over the N15 billion cash haul from the Osborne Towers
