The Acting Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu has decried the low level public awareness on the negative effects of corruption among Nigerians, saying this may be the reason the Commission’s efforts seem not to be well appreciated by members of the public.
Magu made these observations on Monday, July 22, 2019 through the South-east Zonal Head of the Commission, Usman Imam who paid a courtesy visit to the Nigeria Television Authority, NTA, Enugu Network Center.
The Acting Chairman who was received by the Authority’s Zonal Director, Bennie Mordi, at her office, said, “The media serves as conveyor belt of our activities, because if we are working and information is not being taken to the right places, people would hardly know what we are doing and this affects how the corruption war is being perceived.
“We want people not just to be informed but understand the effects of corruption and the effects it has on their lives because, if people who are elites are finding it difficult to understand us, then we are in trouble already at the grassroots where there is a major gap in information dissemination.”
The EFCC boss further expressed worry that EFCC’s anti-corruption fight is often misconstrued while corrupt elements in the society are revered and worshipped by the direct victims of their nefarious activities.
He noted that sensitisation and information transmission were key in the fight against corruption, “knowing that if corruption which has been the bane of the nation’s progress is sorted out, more than half of her problems would have been taken care of.”
Magu called on Mordi and her NTA team to help the Commission the more with coverage of its activities, as part of the station’s corporate social responsibility.
In her response, Mordi thanked Imam for the visit. She noted that EFCC has done wonderfully well in the execution of its mandates.
“Yours is a noble project and you are doing great in your area and like you rightly pointed out, nobody sees you in the dark when you wink, so you need us, no doubt about it.”
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While promising only to meet the EFCC halfway in its demand for coverage, Mordi disclosed that the NTA Enugu Zonal Office has peculiar challenges which inhibit it to do as much as it would wish for the Commission.
Imam was accompanied in the visit by Head, Public Affairs, South-east Zone, Chris Oluka and was received by NTA’s Assistant Directors of Administration, Finance, Marketing, Production, News and Engineering.
Tony Orilade
Ag. Head, Media & Publicity
July 23, 2019
