John Shiklam in Kaduna
Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu, has said corruption has found its way into the implementation of the National Social Investment Programme (N-SIP).
N-SIP was established in 2016 under the Office of the Vice President to ensure school feeding for primary school pupils, create jobs and carryout conditional cash transfer for traders and the poor.
The programme is said to have gulped N450 billion.
Speaking at the 15th Anti-Corruption Situation Room organised by Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) yesterday in Kaduna, Magu charged the civil society organisations to investigate its implementation.
The EFCC boss, who was represented by the commission’s spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, also dismissed insinuations that the fight against corruption was being selective, saying “all the crises in Nigeria today boil down to corruption.”
He said the EFCC was doing everything possible to ensure that stolen resources were recovered and returned, urging civil society organisations to play more active role, especially in the N-SIP.
“Corruption has crept into the implementation of the programme. We want to ensure that we don’t create more crises from a crisis situation. In the Anchor Borrowers programme, there are people who are bagging sand instead of fertiliser,” he said.
Earlier, the guest speaker at the event, Prof. Adam Ahmed Abere, attributed all the security and socio-economic problems facing the country to corruption.
He said corruption hinders true democracy, noting that banditry in Zamfara and Katsina states was consequence of mining operations in the two states.
“The plan is to make the area an ungovernable environment to bring arms in and control the mining activities fully but the federal government’s ban on mining activities had helped to reduce the crises,” he said.
Also speaking, HEDA Executive Director, Mr. Olanrewaju Suraju, said the Anti-corruption Situation Room was designed to facilitate interaction between stakeholders in promoting anti-corruption and good governance.
