Senate on Monday mandated the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to beam its searchlight on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) over what it described as massive racketeering of foreign exchange and looting of public funds.
The upper chamber also asked the anti-graft agency to search and identify owners of mansions in highbrow areas of Asokoro and Maitama in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
The lawmakers claimed that it has been established that several senior officials including directors and permanent secretaries in the MDAs become overnight billionaires by corruptly enriching themselves in public office.
They contended that such corrupt officials hide their loots in building mansions in highbrow areas of the country including Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt.
The Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes stated these when the Acting Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, appeared before the committee to defend the commission’s 2017 budget.
Magu led other members of the commission’s leadership to the 2017 budget defence.
Members of the committee, who frowned at the EFCC for always going after former public officials, asked the commission to focus more on financial crimes prevention rather than chasing after officials when crimes had been committed.
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