The Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, says he strongly believes coronavirus is caused by corruption.
Mr Magu said this at the passing out parade of 281 cadets of the EFCC Detective Inspector Course-5, at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, on Tuesday.
He said âCorruption is the biggest strategy to human kind. Your excellency, corruption is worse than all the diseases now running about.
âAnd I strongly believe, Your Excellency, that even the coronavirus is caused by corruption,â Mr Magu said.
Coronavirus, officially named COVID-19, broke out in Wuhan in Hubei province of China in December last year.
The disease has infected over 1716 medical workers in China alone and over 73,000 infected persons in 25 countries, causing not less than 1,875 deaths. Majority of the deaths are in Wuhan.
The exact cause of the disease has not been determined, neither has a cure been found.
Corruption deeply rooted
Mr Magu described the fight against corruption as a crusade against the evils in the society.
âFighting corruption is thus a crusade against the evils of our society that are deeply rooted and threatening to consume us.
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âWe are aware of the task is not easy and the path can be very thorny and lonely, but with determination and a high sense of mission, we are making a progress towards rooting out this evil from our society
âAs part of vigorous pursuit, the commission has created new specialised directorate and section taking into cognisance the changing phase of criminality,â he said.
âThis directorate includes asset forfeiture and recovery management directorate, forensic and science laboratory directorate, anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism section.
âAs at 2015, we had 103 convictions, in 2016,195 convictions, 314 in 2018, over 1218 convictions were secured in 2019,â he said.