I Lent EFCC N300m So It Could Take Off, Says Atiku

“I borrowed them N300million from the privatisation proceeds and I said ‘you better get to work,’” Atiku said.

Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP), says he gave a loan of N300million to the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC) from privatisation proceeds to commence
activities when the anti-graft agency was set up.

He also said
one of the ways to tackle corruption is to reduce the personal
relationship between individuals in the public and private sectors.

He
stated this on Wednesday night when he featured on ‘The Candidates’, a
presidential town hall co-production between Daria Media and the
Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), with support from the MacArthur
Foundation and anchored by Kadaria Ahmed.

Speaking on how he
hopes to fight corruption, Atiku stressed that he would embrace
prevention measures as well as punitive measures.

His words:
“There is need for us to go by the adage of the English saying, which
states ‘Prevention is better than cure’. We can keep it going side by
side — punitive measures and prevention measures — and my point is that
we should be able to introduce technology in our public service and even
in the private sector, so the relationship with the members of the
public and private is not personal.

“I made an example of the
United Arab Emirates, whose citizens are not as educated as Nigerians,
and hereby introduced technology amongst the public sector. They have
virtually eliminated corruption. I want to automate the public sector
and make sure the contact that brings about corruption is eliminated.
When you eliminated that, you would have reduced corruption to the
barest minimum.”

On the activities of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC) as well as ensuring that corrupt public
officials are not shielded from being prosecuted, even if they were his
friends, he continued: “My quarrel with the judicial system is that
there is too much delay, if we can shuttle the delay so that justice is
being set out immediately, the better for us.

“Looking at the
legislature and the procedure in dealing with the judiciary, you know
that the cases we initiated during our administration are still in
court. Where is the justice there? We set up the EFCC. I, in particular,
brought the piece of drafting regulation from Brazil, and it was based
on that draft, legislation was crafted. When it was eventually passed by
the National Assembly, the EFCC did not even have the money in the
budget to start the operation. I borrowed them N300million from the
privatisation proceeds and I said ‘you better get to work’.

“The
following year when there was budgetary allocation; they repaid the
money. So I believe the period that it takes, most of the convictions
that you are hearing today were cases from our administration.”

Source:- Saharareporters