The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has said that its acting chairman, Ibrahim Magu, did not allege corruption in the National Social Investment Programme (N-SIP) and the Anchor Borrower’s Programme.
Reports had quoted Mr Magu saying through the agency’s spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, at the 15th Anti-Corruption Situation Room organised by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda in Kaduna on Tuesday that civil society organisations should “investigate the N-SIP.”
The commission in a statement on Wednesday by Mr Uwujaren said the reports were false and twisted.
“In the presentation, the EFCC spokesperson observed that the agency had received complaints in some zones regarding the social investment programmes, citing an example in Gombe where the Commission investigated a case in the Anchor Borrower’s Scheme in which sand was bagged and passed off as fertilizer,” the statement said.
“He, therefore, warned that for the crises in these conflict zones not to degenerate, civil society organisations should play more active roles in monitoring the programmes to ensure that their benefits get to the people for which they are intended.
“At no time in the presentation did Mr Uwujaren mention the N-SIP as a programme nor did he accuse those who superintend it of corruption. The specific case mentioned the Anchor Borrower’s scheme is not part of the N-SIP being supervised by the office of the Vice President.”
Uwujaren said that calling on Nigerian civil societies to monitor social intervention programmes was not a call to “investigation” as no one had been indicted.
“It is therefore shocking to read the unfounded insinuation of the reporters, aimed only at fanning the embers of disaffection that only exist in their imagination,” he said.
“The sensational attempt to project a false indictment and incite the Vice President against the person of the Chairman of the EFCC is therefore condemnable.”
