Acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, has reiterated his commitment to prosecute any corrupt individual or institutions despite being critized heavily for selective anti-graft campaign.
Mr Magu expressed worries over the involvement of banks in money laundering sounding out ‘private banking’ as the vehicle for top politicians to launder huge sums of tax payer’s monies.
He said he had already taken the matter up with the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele and other top banking executives with a view to put an end to looting.
“We had a discussion with the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and I insisted that this so-called private banking should be stopped. It is illegal. It is wrong.
“We are not only going after the personnel of the banks but also after the banks. What happens is that when a staff of the bank is involved in such activities, what the bank does is to take the person out of the system through dismissal. But now, we are going to go after the banks and the personnel used to perpetrate the fraud. It takes two to tango.
“In fact, very soon you will see us going after the Managing Directors of the banks. We don’t care what happens because the right thing has to be done. These people have given a lot of room for the money laundering activities to thrive. They were used to hide all the stolen.”
However, the EFCC chairman also said there is no sparing any corrupt individual in the war, adding that any Nigerian who commits an economic crime must face the law.
“There is no sacred cow as far as this fight against corruption is concerned. We will go after anybody who has committed an offence. We will collect the money back, so that it will go back to the treasury and be used for the original purposes.
“I don’t care whether you’re black or white or you come from party A or Party B; the moment it can be established that you have stolen from the public treasury, we will go after you. Even right here [in EFCC], if we discover that you’re corrupt, we will kick you out. And we are already doing that. So we don’t go after innocent people. We are going after the thieves of state resources.”