By Gbenga Ariyibi
ADO-EKITI—The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has raised an alarm on how some state governors manipulated local government chairmen in their states to siphon public funds through the implementation of joint accounts by executing bogus projects

An operative in the Department of Strategy and Orientation of the Commission, Mr Medard Ehibika, disclosed this at a stakeholders’ forum organised by Ekiti State chapter of the Anti-Corruption Revolution, ANCOR, led by Mr Franklin Oloniju.

According to the EFCC top shot, most of the information gathered at the commission had disclosed that some state governors have a domineering and overriding influence on how projects in the joint accounts between the governors and council chairmen are to be executed.

Ehibaka therefore called on the people in the various communities to show more interest on how money coming from the federation account to the councils  are spent from time to time.

He equally charged the people at the grassroots level to always monitor the implementation of budgets by local governments to forestall diversion of public funds into private pockets.

EFCC ‘ll block loopholes against corruption

He assured on some of the measures being put in place by the commission to block all the loopholes and dismantle the structures being used for corruption in the Civil Service by using some people within the government as monitoring agents to curb the activities of fraudsters.

According to him, “0ver 55,000 pregnant women in the country died yearly during labour while about N8 million Nigerians children are hungry and this is because all the money to equip our hospitals and provide basic necessities of life have been freighted abroad

“So we need the people to form a coalition with our commission to report how the state governments interact with the councils on JAC and how the budgets at the local government level are being implemented to check the incessant diversion of public funds for personal use”, he said

In his own contribution, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ado Ekiti, UNAD, Prof Dipo Kolawole who was represented by Prof Kunle Ajayi called for full autonomy of the EFCC, noting that the anti -corruption body may not be able to perform up  to the people’s expectation if it is still being controlled by Federal Government.

Kolawole who spoke on “Curbing  the menace of Corruption; Our Collective Goals”, noted  that the anti -corruption body must be given full autonomy, especially in the area of fund and general administration.

He regretted  how some top political office holders in the country are allegedly being protected by the Presidency in the name of political patronage and loyalty, saying this had been a serious clog in the wheels of all anti-corruption agencies in the country.