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The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa, on Tuesday, pleaded to the National Assembly for more budgetary allocation in 2023 financial for the agency for the constitution of its proposed EFCC academy.
Bawa made the plea when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Anti-Corruption in Abuja to defend the 2023 budget proposal of the Agency.
He urged the committee to allocate more funds to the commission in the 2023 budget to enable it to establish the proposed EFCC academy.
The EFCC Boss who disclosed that N3 billion naira was allocated for the project in 2021 explained that nothing was allocated to the commission for the project in the current 2022 Financial year.
He stated that the establishment of the Academy would enable the commission to train its personnel to be a step ahead of criminals.
Bawa said he would seek the approval of the Federal Executive Council on Oct.9 for the commencement of projects at the proposed academy.
He said this would cost N3 billion naira as earmarked by the National Assembly, adding that the commission would require at least N50 billion to execute 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 said the anti-graft agency would not optimally fight the war against corruption with the abysmally low budget.
This came just as Bawa said the commission had appealed the judgement of the FCT High Court, convicting the chairman of contempt of court for failure to comply with an earlier order of the court.
Justice Chizoba Oji, of the FCT High Court in a ruling, had held that the chairman of the commission was in contempt of the orders of the court made on Nov. 21st 2018.
The court had directed the commission to return to the applicant his Range Rover and the sum of N40 million.
The court said having continued wilfully in disobedience to the order of the court, he should be committed to prison at Kuje Correctional Centre.
This according to the court is his disobedience, and continued disobedience of the said order until he purged himself of the contempt.
The EFCC boss in his reaction to newsmen during the budget defence with the House of Representatives Committee on Anti. Corruption said the commission would ensure that the law takes its full course.
The chairman while speaking at the budget defence said on the 2023 appropriation to the commission was grossly inadequate, particularly for capital projects.
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2023 Budget: EFCC Chairman seeks more funds for proposed academy
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