EFCC deepens surveillance on VP, demands CSOs to Monitor Social Investment Programmes

At a time that the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, is perceived to have come under political attacks, from the very party he belongs, and by extension, the government he participates in, some indirect ‘attacks’ or hypothetical instigations, appear to be spring from certain public institutions.

While the controversy over a disputed statement by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) insinuating corruption in the Social Investment Programmes supervised by the office of the Vice President, is yet to be cleared off the scene, the Commission is raising seeming fresh basis of suspicion in requesting civil society organizations (CSOs) in Nigeria to monitor the implementation of Social Investment Programmes across the country to ensure that the benefits get to the people that the programmes are meant to serve.

It was gathered that Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC Head of Media and Publicity, was gathered to have in goodwill message at the 15th Anti- Corruption Situation Room organised by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) in Kaduna, with the theme, “corruption and its threat to peaceful coexistence” sought the involvement of the CSOs in watching the activities of the Social Investment Programme.

Uwujaren, representing the EFCC acting Chairman,  Ibrahim Magu, had highlighted that the Commission’s anti-corruption effort was driven by an overarching commitment to peace building, by ensuring that resources meant for public good are not stolen.

Uwujarem was said to have disclosed that EFCC had received complaints about the implementation of the social investment schemes, pointing out that there was a case in the Anchor Borrowers Scheme investigated in the Gombe office of the Commission in which sand were bagged and supplied in place of fertilizer. The EFCC Head of Media had further remarked that in order not to create ‘crises from a crisis situation,’ it is important for civil society organizations play more active roles in tracking the implementation of the programmes so that the people can get the full benefit.

He was cited to have said that the nation cannot afford a situation in which these programmes go the way of the Niger Delta Development Commission, an international agency whose impact is yet to be fully felt by the people of the Niger Delta despite huge resource allocation over the years.