The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission receives more than 20,000 petitions concerning public-sector corruption annually, its Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, has disclosed.
Olukoyede made the disclosure in Abuja on Saturday at the 80th birthday celebration of a former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Kanu Agabi.
The EFCC boss said the volume of petitions reflected the scale of corruption confronting the country.
He said some investigations by the commission had uncovered cases involving public officials whose financial fortunes changed significantly after assuming office.
“I receive over 20,000 petitions in a year in respect of public corruption, all terrible. What is going on?
“Every minute, public officers take money, and if you go through some of our case files, you will weep,” Olukoyede said.
The EFCC chairman stressed that corruption should not be treated as the responsibility of law enforcement agencies alone.
According to him, Nigerians collectively suffer the consequences of the alleged diversion of public resources.
“The way people take national resources, as Nigerians, we’re victims of these fraudulent activities.
“And we must come together for once in our lifetime and say no to the activities of some of our leaders,” he said.
Olukoyede further disclosed that EFCC investigations had, in some cases, traced substantial naira and dollar assets to public servants who had relatively modest financial positions before taking office.
He alleged that some officials accumulated millions of dollars and naira within three or four years of serving in public office.
He also claimed that investigations had linked some public officials to dozens, and in some cases hundreds, of houses.
“Somebody will spend three to four years as a public servant, but before he got to office, he had less than N100,000 in his account.
“By the time he’s leaving, we were able to trace several millions of dollars and naira to him,” Olukoyede said.
He added, “Some build 50-something houses, sometimes 200 houses. There’s no way a nation will develop with those kinds of people in power, no way.”
Olukoyede called for collective action by Nigerians to confront corruption and protect national resources from abuse.
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