Date: 2017-12-18

The Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Dr. Ahmad Ali, has declared that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) cannot fight corruption and that the commission was just out to pursue opposition members in the country.

Ahmad made this observation during a chat with journalists in Ilorin on the sideline of the 10th Justice Mustapha Akanbi (rtd) annual lecture organized by the Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin.

He said: "EFCC from inception in year 2000 is the worst thing that will ever happen to us in this country. We are just fooling ourselves that we are fighting corruption but we are not fighting corruption".

"EFCC is just redefining corruption to mean pursuit of opposition members. So the fight is not against corruption but pursuit of opposition. EFCC cannot fight corruption; EFCC can never fight corruption in Nigeria," he said.

The Speaker, however, noted that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) was better suited to fight corruption because the Commission follows the rule. He said that the ICPC should be empowered.

He said, "ICPC is better suited because ICPC follows the rule. "You empower ICPC, because ICPC follow the rule and ICPC is best suited to fight corruption because it is attacking the process and procedure.

"Politicians are less than a thousand and that is what ICPC is following but bureaucracy is over a million.

"You can see that 90% of houses in Abuja belong to the Directors not politicians. So, we are just fooling ourselves by saying that we are fighting corruption. It's good, it's popular, but I think if any government wants to fight corruption, the ICPC should be strengthened."