EFCC Chairman: Terrorism war, tax evasion claim N11.4 trillion

Since 2008, the Federal Government is said to have spent N6 trillion on the fight against terrorism, while multi-national corporations operating in the country are said to have lost N5.4 trillion in tax evasion between 2011 and 2021.

This is in addition to resource theft in the country’s oil and gas sector.

Abdulrasheed Bawa, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, revealed this on Friday while speaking at the 38th Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime, organized by the Centre for International Documentation on Organised and Economic Crime, Jesus College, University of Cambridge, on the topic of ‘Combating Crime, Corruption and Implications for Development and Security.’

According to the EFCC boss, who is represented by his Deputy Chief of Staff, Sambo Mayana, the anti-graft agency has recovered over N6 billion from financial and economic saboteurs since March when he took office.

The EFCC’s spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said this in a statement titled, “In UK, Bawa calls on world leaders to rise to the challenge of fighting corruption.”

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According to a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, resources that could help a country develop are lost due to criminal acts like corruption, tax evasion, money laundering, and others.

“The spoiler effects on countries’ development processes are diverse, and particularly severe for fragile states: economic crime, including illicit financial flows, diverts much-needed resources from security and justice to basic social services like health and education,” according to Bawa.

According to him, the EFCC had over 3,408 convictions as of August 2021, according to records.

“Since I became Executive Chairman on March 5, 2021, we have recovered over N6 billion, $161 million, £13,000, €1,730, 200 Canadian dollars, CFA 373,000, 8,430, and 30 real estates.

He went on to say, “We have arrested over 1,500 Internet fraudsters, many of whom are being prosecuted.”

The absence of significant improvement in the living conditions of people in Africa and other developing countries, despite their natural resource endowment, according to the EFCC chair, is due to widespread economic crime in those countries.

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“The prevalence of illegal mining, smuggling of goods, tax evasion, illegal oil bunkering, and illegal arms deals, to name a few,” he argued, “does not allow the government to receive the full accruals from the continent’s vast resources needed for development.”

“Government officials and their private-sector collaborators embezzle the revenue generated. This does not allow for economic growth and, as a result, is an impediment to development.”