Bishop Kukah condemns controversy over cash recovered by EFCC

Irked by the incidences of abandoned cash discoveries by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Dr. Matthew Hassan Kukah has said that the situation was capable of denting the image of Nigeria before the international community.

Kukah spoke yesterday in Kaduna at a national seminar organised for religious leaders by Inter Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA).

The Bishop said that it is embarrassing that money running into billions was found in private premises, while its ownership is being disputed in a country currently under economic recession.

“The only time when Christianity and Islam don’t matter, is when they are burying the money under the ground and when they are sharing the contracts. When they are sharing the loot, that is when religion doesn’t matter.”

Meanwhile, the presidency yesterday said it has begun efforts to strengthen and encourage the whistleblower policy following the recent recorded breakthroughs in the war against corruption and unaccounted wealth.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, said the response of Nigerians to the policy has added fillip to the crusade and the government is considering ways of enhancing the capacity.

He said that government is considering empowering the mechanism by either bringing it under the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PCAC), or another body to provide it with a strategic national purpose.

In a twist, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the EFCC under President Muhammadu Buhari had lost focus and doing contrary to the reason of its establishment.

The party via its twitter handle @OfficialPDPNig yesterday said ”the anti-corruption fight under the APC govt has become comedy.’ The opposition party called on the agency to give account of the recovered looted funds in the last two years.