The Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ibrahim Magu on Thursday declined comments on why the embattled former chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina evaded arrest despite being declared wanted since 2015.
Magu, while fielding question from journalists on why Maina returned to the country without the knowledge of the anti-graft agency, said he would make a comment at the appropriate time.
“We reserve that for other time… At the appropriate time I will make statement,” he told newsmen in Abuja on the sideline of a preparatory meeting towards Nigeria’s role as the champion of the 2018 African Union theme, “Winning the Fight against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation”.
He however assured that President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government would not disappoint the rest of the world in its fight against corruption.
“The fact that this meeting is taking place is an indication that there is an effective political will to fight corruption,” he said.
He also appealed to Nigerians, including the media, to work closely with the commission to fight graft.
“We appeal to the media to expose the corrupt. We want everybody to work with us, particularly the media to fight corruption,” he added.
Earlier, the deputy chairperson of the African Union Commission, Ambassador Thomas Kwesi Quartey, said Africa loses an average of $50 billion annually through illicit financial flows.
The fund, he said, could be used to drive socio-economic development and structural transformation of Africa to address major problems of poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment.
“Where corruption is tacitly accepted as a means of doing business, efforts to improve legal and regulatory frameworks are unlikely to succeed,” he said.
He said the problem of corruption in Africa cannot be tackled by crafting policies, which are exclusively domestic-oriented.
“At a minimum, there is need to sharply increase the transparency of the international financial system and to augment the capacity of States, so as to place an obstacle to illicit financial flows,” he said.