Ibrahim Magu, the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Monday said at least N1.3 trillion was
stolen between 2011 and 2015. Magu said the money stolen under President Goodluck Jonathan
administration was by 32 entities, including private individuals and
organisations.
He said this during his keynote address at the 2019 first batch
conversion graining programme to procurement cadre for federal
parastatal and agencies organised by the Bureau of Public Procurement in
Lagos on Monday.
In the address delivered by Ola Olukoyede, EFCC secretary, Magu
lamented what the stolen funds could have been used to achieve in
Nigeria.
He said: “N1.3 trillion was stolen between 2011 and 2015.the money
stolen under President Goodluck Jonathan adminstration was by 32
entities, including private individuals and organisations.
“One third of this money, using world bank rates and cost, could have
comfortably been used to construct well over 500km of roads; build
close to 200 schools; educate about 4000 children from primary to
tertiary levels at N25million per child; build 20,000 units of
two-bedroom houses across the country and do even more.
“The cost of this grand theft, therefore, is that these roads,
schools and houses will never be built and these children will never
have access to quality education because a few rapacious individuals had
cornered for themselves what would have helped secure the lives of the
future generations, thereby depriving them of quality education and
healthcare, among others.
“poor state of procurement process in Nigeria was one of the major
reasons why corruption has continued to thrive in government agencies
and parastatals.
“I sincerely hope that at the end of this training, we will see a few
cases of financial propriety in our procurement processes in government
agencies and parastatal.
“Indeed, corruption could kill Nigeria, if we do not scale up our proficiency in contract and procurement management process.”