EFCC is Overburdened, Says Lagos DPP

***Calls for expansion of prosecution roles

Ugo Aliogo

The Lagos Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Mrs. Idowu Alakija, have called for an expansion of prosecutorial roles of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) stressing that there are state prosecutors who can handle the prosecutorial roles of the commission, but they are limited to financial crimes as a result they cannot take the duty.

Alakija, who disclosed this yesterday in Lagos, at the United Nations Global Compact workshop on anti-corruption collective action, said if the prosecutorial roles are expanded to States prosecutors they will be able to prosecute.

She lamented that corruption and insecurity affect development in the society, the health of victims, international trade and foreign investment in any country, stating that in order to address the corruption cases properly, there is need for the state prosecutors to play a role, “the EFCC cannot deal with all the cases alone. The EFCC, the Ministry of Justice, ICPC and every Nigeria are stakeholders in the anti-corruption war.”

She stated that the Lagos State government is not only concerned with the enactment of the anti-corruption laws, but also ensuring that the enforcement of these laws, adding that for any society to strive, the level of corruption should be negligible enough to encourage businesses.

“No investor is capable of investing in an environment that is filled with high scale corruption and insecurity. To this end, the state government recently effected the state single account as a means of eliminating fraudsters. The state now has a unified account which makes accountability very easy in order to monitor what is coming in and going out. Lagos state shall continue to work with the business community to ensure that we tackle corrupt practices in the corporate world. The present administration is fully committed in providing the enabling environment for foreign direct investment,” she noted.