The Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu has decried the refusal of the United Kingdom to extradite a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke.
The EFCC’s efforts to have the British government extradite the former minister to Nigeria to face trial for alleged money laundering had failed to yield any result.
But, Magu, who spoke when he received the “Institution of the Decade” award on behalf of the EFCC at the ThisDay award held in Lagos Monday, said the money allegedly stolen by Allison-Madueke and others would be enough to keep the “wheel of the nation’s economy rolling if recovered.”
Magu, according to a statement issued by the EFCC’s acting Head of Media and Publicity, Tony Orilade, insisted that the anti-graft agency had sufficient evidence to prosecute Allison-Madueke for the alleged financial malfeasance she committed while in office.
He said: “We don’t want to keep chasing everybody as a suspect. We want everybody who has stolen from the commonwealth to bring it back to Nigeria, so as to use the monies to provide the needed infrastructure.”
The EFCC chief said the Commission would build more detention facilities and open additional zonal offices so as to bring the anti-corruption fight nearer home to the people.