Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), pleaded to the National Assembly on Tuesday for more budgetary allocation in 2023 financial for the agency for the establishment of its proposed EFCC academy.
Bawa made the request while testifying before the House of Representatives Committee on Anti-Corruption in Abuja to defend the Agency’s 2023 budget proposal.
He urged the committee to include more funds in the commission’s budget for 2023 in order for it to establish the proposed EFCC academy.
The EFCC boss, who revealed that N3 billion naira was allotted for the project in 2021, explained that nothing was allotted to the commission for the project in the current fiscal year, 2022.
He stated that the Academy would allow the commission to train its personnel to be one step ahead of criminals.
Bawa stated that he would seek approval from the Federal Executive Council on October 9 for the start of projects at the proposed academy.
He stated that the National Assembly had allocated N3 billion for this purpose, but that the commission would need at least N50 billion to complete the project.
According to him;
We need admin block, parade ground, sports complex, housing for the staff, hostels, and lecture halls as well as computers.
He claimed that the anti-corruption agency’s meagre budget would make it impossible to fight corruption effectively.
This came as Bawa announced that the commission had appealed the FCT High Court’s decision convicting the chairman of contempt of court for failing to comply with an earlier court order.
In a ruling, Justice Chizoba Oji of the FCT High Court ruled that the chairman of the commission was in contempt of court orders issued on November 21st, 2018.
The court ordered the commission to return the applicant’s Range Rover and N40 million.
The court ruled that he should be committed to the Kuje Correctional Centre for willfully disobeying the court’s order.
According to the court, this is his disobedience, and he continued to disobey the order until he purged himself of the contempt.
In his response to reporters during the budget defense with the House of Representatives Anti-Corruption Committee, the EFCC boss stated that the commission would ensure that the law is followed to the letter.
During the budget defense, the chairman stated that the commission’s appropriation for 2023 was grossly inadequate, particularly for capital projects.