The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, was on Friday January 17, 2020, announced as the winner of THISDAY Newspaper’s Institution of the Decade Award.
The Newspaper will present the Award to the Commission in commemoration of its 25th Anniversary which comes up on Monday , January 20, 2020, in Lagos.
Thisday Board said the EFCC, after a painstaking selection emerged the Institution of Decade along with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Twenty four different winners emerged, two in each of the 12 categories announced by the Newspaper.
The Commission’s profile as the strongest anti-corruption institution in Africa earned it the Award after meeting the Board of Editors’ standard.
According to the Board, which considered strength of industry knowledge and professional advice, nominated the Commission based on its public engagement and enlightenment, training and capacity building, sensitisation, arrests, convictions, asset recoveries, prosecution and competence in the fight against corruption.
“Since its establishment in 2003 by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), remains Nigeria’s foremost anti-graft agency”, the Statement read
It also stressed that, “Its zeal to achieve its mission statement of ridding Nigeria of economic and financial crimes and coordinate the domestic effort of the global fight against money laundering and terrorists financing, has birthed a new public order, especially in spending public funds. This new conscience has now earned it the editor’s pick as the institution of the decade”.
In the last decade, the Commission recorded 2,447 convictions; and billions of cash recoveries in local and foreign currencies. It has also addressed financial corruption and money laundering by prosecuting and convicting a number of high-profile corrupt individuals, ranging from Nigeria’s former chief law enforcement officer to several bank chief executives, governors, senators and captains of industries.
The Commission made considerable efforts towards building public consciousness against graft and unbeatable consistence in fighting corruption in Nigeria. It stands tall as the topmost corruption- fighting agency in Nigeria commanding high regards among Nigerians and the International Community
